Donne's prose and verse of
the years following 1601 are full of this melancholy depreciation of
himself and his lot.
the years following 1601 are full of this melancholy depreciation of
himself and his lot.
John Donne
They took this to go with 'A monster and a beggar': 'I that ever was
a monster and a beggar in Natures and in Fortunes gifts. ' This is a
strange expression, taken, I suppose, to mean that Donne never enjoyed
the blessings either of Nature or of Fortune. But what Donne says
is somewhat different. The phrase 'I that ever was in Natures and
in Fortunes gifts' means 'I that ever was the Almsman of Nature and
Fortune'. Donne is using metaphorically a phrase of which the O. E. D.
quotes a single instance: 'I live in Henry the 7th's Gifts' (i. e.
his Almshouses). T. Barker, _The Art of Angling_ (1651). The whole
sentence might be paraphrased thus: 'I, who was ever the Almsman of
Nature and Fortune, am now a fool. ' Parenthetically he adds, 'Till
thy grace begot me, a monster and a beggar, in the Muses' school'.
Possibly 'and a beggar' should be left outside the brackets and taken
with 'In Natures and in Fortunes gifts': 'I, that _was_ an almsman
and beggar, was by you begotten a poet, though a monstrous one;'
('monster' goes properly with 'got') 'and am now a fool'--possibly the
last allusion is to his rash marriage.
Donne's prose and verse of
the years following 1601 are full of this melancholy depreciation of
himself and his lot. Daniel calls himself the
Orphan of Fortune, borne to be her scorne.
_Delia_, 26.
Compare also:
O I am fortune's fool.
Shakespeare, _Romeo and Juliet_, III. i. 129.
Let your study
Be to content your lord, who hath received you
At fortune's alms.
Shakespeare, _King Lear_, I. i. 277-9.
So shall I clothe me in a forced content,
And shut myself up in some other course,
To fortune's alms.
Shakespeare, _Othello_, III. iv. 120-2.
In _W_ 'All haile sweet Poet' is followed at once by these lines,
presumably written by Thomas Woodward and possibly in reply to the
above.
