The
following
sonnet from the
series illustrates the use of legal terminology which both Davies and
Donne satirize:
Canzon 20.
series illustrates the use of legal terminology which both Davies and
Donne satirize:
Canzon 20.
John Donne
' Donne is supposed to have
mistaken Davies' 'gulling' for serious poetry. This is very unlikely.
Moreover, only the last two of Davies' sonnets are 'couched in legal
terminology':
My case is this, I love Zepheria bright,
Of her I hold my harte by fealty:
and
To Love my lord I doe knights service owe
And therefore nowe he hath my wit in ward.
Nor, although Davies' style parodies the style of the sonneteers (not
of the anonymous _Zepheria_ only), is it particularly harsh. It is
much more probable that Donne, like Davies, has chiefly in view this
anonymous series of sonnets--_Zepheria_. _Ogni di viene la sera. Mysus
et Haemonia juvenis qui cuspide vulnus senserat, hac ipsa cuspide
sensit opem. At London: Printed by the Widow Orwin, for N. L.
and John Busby. _ 1594. The style of _Zepheria_ exactly fits Donne's
description:
words, words which would teare
The tender labyrinth of a soft maids eare.
'The verbs "imparadize", "portionize", "thesaurize", are some of
the fruits of his ingenuity. He claims that his Muse is capable
of "hyperbolised trajections"; he apostrophizes his lady's eyes as
"illuminating lamps" and calls his pen his "heart's solicitor". '
Sidney Lee, _Elizabethan Sonnets_.
The following sonnet from the
series illustrates the use of legal terminology which both Davies and
Donne satirize:
Canzon 20.
How often hath my pen (mine heart's Solicitor)
Instructed thee in Breviat of my case!
While Fancy-pleading eyes (thy beauty's visitor)
Have pattern'd to my quill, an angel's face.
How have my Sonnets (faithful Counsellors)
Thee without ceasing moved for Day of Hearing!
While they, my Plaintive Cause (my faith's Revealers! ),
Thy long delay, my patience, in thine ear ring.
How have I stood at bar of thine own conscience
When in Requesting Court my suit I brought!
How have the long adjournments slowed the sentence
Which I (through much expense of tears) besought!
Through many difficulties have I run,
Ah sooner wert thou lost, I wis, than won.
We do not know who the author of _Zepheria_ was, so cannot tell how
far Donne is portraying an individual in what follows. It can hardly
be Hoskins or Martin, unless _Zepheria_ itself was intended to be
a burlesque, which is possible. Quite possibly Donne has taken the
author of _Zepheria_ simply as a type of the young lawyer who writes
bad poetry; and in the rest of the poem portrays the same type when
he has abandoned poetry and devoted himself to 'Law practice for
mere gain', extorting money and lands from Catholics or suspected
Catholics, and drawing cozening conveyances. If _Zepheria_ be the
poems referred to, then 1594-5 would be the date of this Satire.
The third _Satyre_ has no datable references, but its tone reflects
the years in which Donne was loosening himself from the Catholic
Church but had not yet conformed, the years between 1593 and 1599,
and probably the earlier rather than the later of these years. On the
whole 1593 is a little too early a date for these three satires. They
were probably written between 1594 and 1597.
mistaken Davies' 'gulling' for serious poetry. This is very unlikely.
Moreover, only the last two of Davies' sonnets are 'couched in legal
terminology':
My case is this, I love Zepheria bright,
Of her I hold my harte by fealty:
and
To Love my lord I doe knights service owe
And therefore nowe he hath my wit in ward.
Nor, although Davies' style parodies the style of the sonneteers (not
of the anonymous _Zepheria_ only), is it particularly harsh. It is
much more probable that Donne, like Davies, has chiefly in view this
anonymous series of sonnets--_Zepheria_. _Ogni di viene la sera. Mysus
et Haemonia juvenis qui cuspide vulnus senserat, hac ipsa cuspide
sensit opem. At London: Printed by the Widow Orwin, for N. L.
and John Busby. _ 1594. The style of _Zepheria_ exactly fits Donne's
description:
words, words which would teare
The tender labyrinth of a soft maids eare.
'The verbs "imparadize", "portionize", "thesaurize", are some of
the fruits of his ingenuity. He claims that his Muse is capable
of "hyperbolised trajections"; he apostrophizes his lady's eyes as
"illuminating lamps" and calls his pen his "heart's solicitor". '
Sidney Lee, _Elizabethan Sonnets_.
The following sonnet from the
series illustrates the use of legal terminology which both Davies and
Donne satirize:
Canzon 20.
How often hath my pen (mine heart's Solicitor)
Instructed thee in Breviat of my case!
While Fancy-pleading eyes (thy beauty's visitor)
Have pattern'd to my quill, an angel's face.
How have my Sonnets (faithful Counsellors)
Thee without ceasing moved for Day of Hearing!
While they, my Plaintive Cause (my faith's Revealers! ),
Thy long delay, my patience, in thine ear ring.
How have I stood at bar of thine own conscience
When in Requesting Court my suit I brought!
How have the long adjournments slowed the sentence
Which I (through much expense of tears) besought!
Through many difficulties have I run,
Ah sooner wert thou lost, I wis, than won.
We do not know who the author of _Zepheria_ was, so cannot tell how
far Donne is portraying an individual in what follows. It can hardly
be Hoskins or Martin, unless _Zepheria_ itself was intended to be
a burlesque, which is possible. Quite possibly Donne has taken the
author of _Zepheria_ simply as a type of the young lawyer who writes
bad poetry; and in the rest of the poem portrays the same type when
he has abandoned poetry and devoted himself to 'Law practice for
mere gain', extorting money and lands from Catholics or suspected
Catholics, and drawing cozening conveyances. If _Zepheria_ be the
poems referred to, then 1594-5 would be the date of this Satire.
The third _Satyre_ has no datable references, but its tone reflects
the years in which Donne was loosening himself from the Catholic
Church but had not yet conformed, the years between 1593 and 1599,
and probably the earlier rather than the later of these years. On the
whole 1593 is a little too early a date for these three satires. They
were probably written between 1594 and 1597.
