No More Learning

If 'and' is substituted for 'or' in this line (_1635-69_ and Chambers)
then the next line becomes otiose.


PAGE =348=. UPON THE TRANSLATION OF THE PSALMES, &c.

We do not know what was the occasion of these lines. The Countess was
the mother of William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, and Philip Herbert,
Earl of Montgomery, and of Pembroke after his brother's death.
Poems by the former are frequently found with Donne's, e. g. in
the Hawthornden MS. which is made from a collection in Donne's own
possession. Doubtless they were known to one another, but there is no
evidence of intimacy, such as letters. To the Countess of Montgomery
Donne in 1619 sent a copy of one of his sermons which she had asked
for (Gosse, _Life, &c_. , ii. 123). It may have been for her that he
composed this poem.

An elaborate copy of the Psalms was prepared by John Davis of
Hereford.
From this they were published in 1822.

From l. 53 it is evident that Donne's poem was written after the death
of the Countess of Pembroke in 1621.

PAGE =349=, l. 38. _So well attyr'd abroad, so ill at home. _ Donne has
probably in mind the French versions of Clement Marot, which were the
war-songs of the Huguenots.


PAGE =351=. TO MR. TILMAN.

Of Mr. Tilman I can find no trace in printed Oxford or Cambridge
registers. The poem is a strange comment on the seventeenth century's
estimate of the clergy:

Why do they think unfit
That Gentry should joyne families with it?

In his _Life of George Herbert_ Walton tells us of Herbert's
resolution to enter the Church, and the opposition he met with:
'He did, at his return to London, acquaint a Court-friend with his
resolution to enter into _Sacred Orders_, who perswaded him to alter
it, as too mean an employment, and too much below his birth, and the
excellent abilities and endowments of his mind. To whom he replied,
'_It hath been formerly judg'd that the Domestick Servants of the King
of Heaven, should be of the noblest Families on Earth: and, though the
Iniquity of the late Times have made Clergy-men meanly valued, and
the sacred name of Priest contemptible; yet, I will labour to make
it honourable, by consecrating all my learning, and all my poor
abilities, to advance the Glory of that God that gave them. _' This
estimate of the clergy must not be overlooked when considering the
struggle that went on in Donne's mind too before he crossed the
Rubicon.