Bishop
Valentine
has paired them; the Bishop in
church has united them; the consummation is their own act.
church has united them; the consummation is their own act.
John Donne
But it is unlikely that 'goe' would have been changed to
'growe', and
To an unseparable union growe
is, I think, preferable, because (1) both the words used in l. 44 are
thus echoed.
_Meeting_ Another, _growes_ the same,
So _meet_ thy Fredericke, and so
To an unseparable union _growe_.
(2) 'To an unseparable union growe', meaning 'Become inseparably
incorporated with one another', is a slightly violent but not
unnatural application of the phrase 'grow to' so common in Elizabethan
English:
'I grow to you, and our parting is a tortured body. ' _All's Well that
Ends Well_, II. i. 36.
First let our eyes be rivited quite through
Our turning brains, and both our lips grow to.
Donne, _Elegie XII_, 57-8.
l. 56. The 'or' of the MSS. must, I think, be right. 'O Bishop
Valentine' does not make good sense. Chambers's ingenious emendation
of _1669_, by which he connects 'of Bishop Valentine' with 'one way
left', lacks support.
Bishop Valentine has paired them; the Bishop in
church has united them; the consummation is their own act.
PAGE =131=. ECCLOGUE. 1613. _December_ 26, &c.
It is unnecessary to detail all the ugly history of this notorious
marriage. See Gardiner, _History of England_, ii. 16 and 20. Frances
Howard, daughter of Thomas Howard, the first Earl of Suffolk, was
married in 1606 to the youthful Earl of Essex, the later Parliamentary
general. In 1613, after a prolonged suit she was granted a divorce,
or a decree of nullity, and was at once married to King James's ruling
favourite, Robert Carr, created Viscount Rochester in 1611, and
Earl of Somerset in 1613. Donne, like every one else, had sought
assiduously to win the favour of the all-powerful favourite. Mr. Gosse
was in error in attributing to him a report on 'the proceedings in the
nullity of the marriage of Essex and Lady Frances Howard' (Harl. MS.
39, f. 416), which was the work of his namesake, Sir Daniell Dunn.
'growe', and
To an unseparable union growe
is, I think, preferable, because (1) both the words used in l. 44 are
thus echoed.
_Meeting_ Another, _growes_ the same,
So _meet_ thy Fredericke, and so
To an unseparable union _growe_.
(2) 'To an unseparable union growe', meaning 'Become inseparably
incorporated with one another', is a slightly violent but not
unnatural application of the phrase 'grow to' so common in Elizabethan
English:
'I grow to you, and our parting is a tortured body. ' _All's Well that
Ends Well_, II. i. 36.
First let our eyes be rivited quite through
Our turning brains, and both our lips grow to.
Donne, _Elegie XII_, 57-8.
l. 56. The 'or' of the MSS. must, I think, be right. 'O Bishop
Valentine' does not make good sense. Chambers's ingenious emendation
of _1669_, by which he connects 'of Bishop Valentine' with 'one way
left', lacks support.
Bishop Valentine has paired them; the Bishop in
church has united them; the consummation is their own act.
PAGE =131=. ECCLOGUE. 1613. _December_ 26, &c.
It is unnecessary to detail all the ugly history of this notorious
marriage. See Gardiner, _History of England_, ii. 16 and 20. Frances
Howard, daughter of Thomas Howard, the first Earl of Suffolk, was
married in 1606 to the youthful Earl of Essex, the later Parliamentary
general. In 1613, after a prolonged suit she was granted a divorce,
or a decree of nullity, and was at once married to King James's ruling
favourite, Robert Carr, created Viscount Rochester in 1611, and
Earl of Somerset in 1613. Donne, like every one else, had sought
assiduously to win the favour of the all-powerful favourite. Mr. Gosse
was in error in attributing to him a report on 'the proceedings in the
nullity of the marriage of Essex and Lady Frances Howard' (Harl. MS.
39, f. 416), which was the work of his namesake, Sir Daniell Dunn.
