Donne means, I suppose, 'Not to be mocked by the garden, and yet to be
ever the faithful lover.
ever the faithful lover.
John Donne
Everything refreshes, and I wither, and I grow older and not
better, my strength diminishes and my load growes, and being to pass
more and more stormes, I finde that I have not onely cast out all my
ballast, which nature and time gives, Reason and discretion, and so
am as empty and light as Vanity can make me, but I have overfraught
myself with vice, and so am ridd(l)ingly subject to two contrary
wracks, Sinking and Oversetting,' &c. _Letters_ (1651), pp. 78-9 (_To
Sir Henry Goodyere_).
l. 15. _Indure, nor yet leave loving. _ This is at first sight a
strange reading, and I was disposed to think that _1635-69_, which
has the support of several MSS. (none of very high textual authority),
must be right. It is strange to hear the Petrarchian lover (Donne is
probably addressing the Countess of Bedford) speak of 'leaving loving'
as though it were in his power. The reading 'nor leave this garden'
suits what follows: 'Not to be mocked by the garden and yet to linger
here in the vicinity of her I love let me become,' &c.
It is remarkable that _D_, _H49_, _Lec_, and _H40_ omit this half
line. If the same omission was in the MS. from which _1633_ printed,
the present reading might be an editor's emendation. But it is older
than that, for it was the reading of the MS. from which the Dutch poet
Huyghens translated, and he has tried by his rhymes to produce the
effect of the alliteration:
Maer, om my noch te decken
Voor sulcken ongeval, en niet te min de Min
Te voeren in mijn zin,
Komt Min, en laet my hier yet ongevoelicks wezen.
Donne means, I suppose, 'Not to be mocked by the garden, and yet to be
ever the faithful lover. ' Compare _Loves Deitie_, l. 24. 'Love might
make me leave loving. ' The remainder of the verse may have been
suggested by Jonson's
Slow, slow, fresh Fount, keep time with my salt Tears.
_Cynthias Revels_ (1600).
l. 17. I have ventured to adopt 'groane' for 'grow' ('grone' and
'growe' are almost indistinguishable) from _A18_, _N_, _TC_; _D_,
_H49_, _Lec_; and _H40_. It is surely much more in Donne's style than
the colourless and pointless 'growe'. It is, too, in closer touch with
the next line. If 'growing' is all we are to have predicated of the
mandrake, then it should be sufficient for the fountain to 'stand', or
'flow'. The chief difficulty in accepting the MS. reading is that
the mandrake is most often said to shriek, sometimes to howl, not to
groan:
I prethee yet remember
Millions are now in graves, which at last day
Like mandrakes shall rise shreeking.
Webster, _The White Devil_, V. vi.
better, my strength diminishes and my load growes, and being to pass
more and more stormes, I finde that I have not onely cast out all my
ballast, which nature and time gives, Reason and discretion, and so
am as empty and light as Vanity can make me, but I have overfraught
myself with vice, and so am ridd(l)ingly subject to two contrary
wracks, Sinking and Oversetting,' &c. _Letters_ (1651), pp. 78-9 (_To
Sir Henry Goodyere_).
l. 15. _Indure, nor yet leave loving. _ This is at first sight a
strange reading, and I was disposed to think that _1635-69_, which
has the support of several MSS. (none of very high textual authority),
must be right. It is strange to hear the Petrarchian lover (Donne is
probably addressing the Countess of Bedford) speak of 'leaving loving'
as though it were in his power. The reading 'nor leave this garden'
suits what follows: 'Not to be mocked by the garden and yet to linger
here in the vicinity of her I love let me become,' &c.
It is remarkable that _D_, _H49_, _Lec_, and _H40_ omit this half
line. If the same omission was in the MS. from which _1633_ printed,
the present reading might be an editor's emendation. But it is older
than that, for it was the reading of the MS. from which the Dutch poet
Huyghens translated, and he has tried by his rhymes to produce the
effect of the alliteration:
Maer, om my noch te decken
Voor sulcken ongeval, en niet te min de Min
Te voeren in mijn zin,
Komt Min, en laet my hier yet ongevoelicks wezen.
Donne means, I suppose, 'Not to be mocked by the garden, and yet to be
ever the faithful lover. ' Compare _Loves Deitie_, l. 24. 'Love might
make me leave loving. ' The remainder of the verse may have been
suggested by Jonson's
Slow, slow, fresh Fount, keep time with my salt Tears.
_Cynthias Revels_ (1600).
l. 17. I have ventured to adopt 'groane' for 'grow' ('grone' and
'growe' are almost indistinguishable) from _A18_, _N_, _TC_; _D_,
_H49_, _Lec_; and _H40_. It is surely much more in Donne's style than
the colourless and pointless 'growe'. It is, too, in closer touch with
the next line. If 'growing' is all we are to have predicated of the
mandrake, then it should be sufficient for the fountain to 'stand', or
'flow'. The chief difficulty in accepting the MS. reading is that
the mandrake is most often said to shriek, sometimes to howl, not to
groan:
I prethee yet remember
Millions are now in graves, which at last day
Like mandrakes shall rise shreeking.
Webster, _The White Devil_, V. vi.
