I had rather be encoffin'd in this chest
Amongst these bookes and papers I protest,
Then free-booting abroad purchase offence,
And scandale my calme thoughts with discontents.
Amongst these bookes and papers I protest,
Then free-booting abroad purchase offence,
And scandale my calme thoughts with discontents.
John Donne
Vertues tears for the losse of the most
Christian King Henry, third of that name; and the untimely death of
the most noble and heroical Gentleman, Walter Devoreux, who was slain
before Roan in France. First written in French by the most excellent
and learned Gentlewoman, Madame Geneuefe Petan Maulette. And
paraphrastically translated into English by Jervis Markham. _ 1597. See
Grosart's Introduction to his reprint of _Skialetheia_ in _Occasional
Issues_. 6. (1878). Donne addresses a letter to _Mr. E. G. _ (p. 208),
which Gosse conjectures to be addressed to Guilpin. That Guilpin
knew Donne is probable in view of this early imitation of a privately
circulated MS. poem. Guilpin's poem begins:
Let me alone I prethee in thys Cell,
Entice me not into the Citties hell;
Tempt me not forth this _Eden_ of content,
To tast of that which I shall soone repent:
Prethy excuse me, I am hot alone
Accompanied with meditation,
And calme content, whose tast more pleaseth me
Then all the Citties lushious vanity.
I had rather be encoffin'd in this chest
Amongst these bookes and papers I protest,
Then free-booting abroad purchase offence,
And scandale my calme thoughts with discontents.
Heere I converse with those diviner spirits,
Whose knowledge, and admire, the world inherits:
Heere doth the famous profound _Stagarite_,
With Natures mistick harmony delight
My ravish'd contemplation: I heere see
The now-old worlds youth in an history:
l. 1. _Away thou fondling, &c. _ The reading of the majority of
editions and MSS. is 'changeling', but this is a case not of a right
and wrong reading but of two versions, both ascribable to the author.
Which was his emendation it is impossible to say. He may have changed
'fondling' (a 'fond' or foolish person) thinking that the idea was
conveyed by 'motley', which, like Shakespeare's epithet 'patch', is a
synecdoche from the dress of the professional fool or jester. On the
other hand the idea of 'changeling' is repeated in 'humorist', which
suggests changeable and fanciful. I have, therefore, let the _1633_
text stand. 'Changeling' has of course the meaning here of 'a fickle
or inconstant person', not the common sense of a person or thing
or child substituted for another, as 'fondling' is not here a 'pet,
favourite', as in modern usage.
l. 3. _Consorted. _ Grosart, who professes to print from _H51_, reads
_Consoled_, without any authority.
l.
Christian King Henry, third of that name; and the untimely death of
the most noble and heroical Gentleman, Walter Devoreux, who was slain
before Roan in France. First written in French by the most excellent
and learned Gentlewoman, Madame Geneuefe Petan Maulette. And
paraphrastically translated into English by Jervis Markham. _ 1597. See
Grosart's Introduction to his reprint of _Skialetheia_ in _Occasional
Issues_. 6. (1878). Donne addresses a letter to _Mr. E. G. _ (p. 208),
which Gosse conjectures to be addressed to Guilpin. That Guilpin
knew Donne is probable in view of this early imitation of a privately
circulated MS. poem. Guilpin's poem begins:
Let me alone I prethee in thys Cell,
Entice me not into the Citties hell;
Tempt me not forth this _Eden_ of content,
To tast of that which I shall soone repent:
Prethy excuse me, I am hot alone
Accompanied with meditation,
And calme content, whose tast more pleaseth me
Then all the Citties lushious vanity.
I had rather be encoffin'd in this chest
Amongst these bookes and papers I protest,
Then free-booting abroad purchase offence,
And scandale my calme thoughts with discontents.
Heere I converse with those diviner spirits,
Whose knowledge, and admire, the world inherits:
Heere doth the famous profound _Stagarite_,
With Natures mistick harmony delight
My ravish'd contemplation: I heere see
The now-old worlds youth in an history:
l. 1. _Away thou fondling, &c. _ The reading of the majority of
editions and MSS. is 'changeling', but this is a case not of a right
and wrong reading but of two versions, both ascribable to the author.
Which was his emendation it is impossible to say. He may have changed
'fondling' (a 'fond' or foolish person) thinking that the idea was
conveyed by 'motley', which, like Shakespeare's epithet 'patch', is a
synecdoche from the dress of the professional fool or jester. On the
other hand the idea of 'changeling' is repeated in 'humorist', which
suggests changeable and fanciful. I have, therefore, let the _1633_
text stand. 'Changeling' has of course the meaning here of 'a fickle
or inconstant person', not the common sense of a person or thing
or child substituted for another, as 'fondling' is not here a 'pet,
favourite', as in modern usage.
l. 3. _Consorted. _ Grosart, who professes to print from _H51_, reads
_Consoled_, without any authority.
l.
