The latter
is a history of the Reformation written from the Protestant point of
view, to which Surius' work is a reply.
is a history of the Reformation written from the Protestant point of
view, to which Surius' work is a reply.
John Donne
l. 48. _Jovius or Surius_: Paolo Giovio, Bishop of Nocera, among many
other works wrote _Historiarum sui temporis Libri XLV. 1553_. Chambers
quotes from the _Nouvelle Biographie Generale_: 'Ses ? oeuvres sont
pleines des mensonges dont profita sa cupidite. '
Laurentius Surius (1522-78) was a Carthusian monk who wrote
ecclesiastical history. Among his works are a _Commentarius brevis
rerum in orbe gestarum ab anno 1550_ (1568), and a _Vitae Sanctorum,
1570 et seq. _ He was accused of inaccuracy by Protestant writers.
It is worth while noting that _Q_ and _O'F_ read 'Sleydan', i. e.
Sleidanus. John Sleidan (1506-56) was a Protestant historian who,
like Surius, wrote both general and ecclesiastical history, e. g. _De
quatuor Summis Imperiis, Babylonico, Persico, Graeco, et Romano_, 1556
(an English translation appeared in 1635), and _De Statu Religionis et
Reipublicae, Carolo Quinto Caesare Commentarii_ (1555-9).
The latter
is a history of the Reformation written from the Protestant point of
view, to which Surius' work is a reply. Sleidan's history did not
give entire satisfaction to the reformers. It is quite possible
that Donne's first sneer was at the Protestant historian and that he
thought it safer later to substitute the Catholic Surius.
l. 54. _Calepines Dictionarie. _ A well-known polyglot dictionary
edited by Ambrose Calepine (1455-1511) in 1502. It grew later to
a _Dictionarium Octolingue_, and ultimately to a _Dictionarium XI
Linguarum_ (Basel, 1590).
l. 56. _Some other Jesuites. _ The 'other' is found only in _HN_, which
is no very reliable authority. Without it the line wants a whole
foot, not merely a syllable. Donne more than once drops a syllable,
compensating for it by the length and stress which is given to
another. Nothing can make up for the want of a whole foot, though in
dramatic verse an incomplete line may be effective. To me, too, it
seems very like Donne to introduce this condensed and sudden stroke at
Beza and nothing more likely to have been dropped later, either by
way of precaution or because it was not understood.
