Letters to Severall Persons of Honour Part 26

To Sir Henry Goodyer, and, as the record of the closing incidents of the Elector Palatine's long struggle shows, written in 1622.

LXXVI

To Sir Henry Goodyer on the death of his wife in 1604.

LXXVII

To Sir Henry Goodyer. The quarrel between Hertford and Monteagle and the last illness of Cecil Boulstrod, here recorded, give the date of this letter as 1609. Cecil Boulstrod was a Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Anne. Ben Jonson read to Drummond his "Verses on the Pucelle of the Court, Mistress Boulstred, whose Epitaph Donne made." They are little to the credit of either the lady or the poet. Drummond records in his _Conversations_ that "that piece of the Pucelle of the Court was stolen out of his (Jonson's) pocket by a gentleman who drank him drousie, and given Mistress Boulstraid; which brought him great displeasure," as well it might. Donne wrote two elegies in her honour, one of which, at least, seems to be inspired by genuine emotion.

LXXVIII

To Sir Henry Goodyer and written in 1615. (See note to x.x.xIV, above.) "This Lady" is apparently the Countess of Huntingdon, and "the Lady where you are" the Countess of Bedford.

LXXIX

This letter, written on the eve of the German tour, on which Donne attended the Earl of Doncaster (See note to VII, above), was, I feel very sure, addressed, not to Sir Thomas Lucy, but to Sir Henry Goodyer. The allusions to Tuesday as a day of writing, the reference to "an establishment in your estate," the acknowledgment of his correspondent's favours in "keeping me alive in the memory of the n.o.blest Countess" (of Bedford), all point to Goodyer.

Lx.x.x

For the date see XXIV, and note.

Lx.x.xI

To Sir Henry Goodyer, and evidently written just prior to Donne's appointment as Dean of Saint Paul's (November 19th, 1621). "My Cases of Conscience" is, I suppose, the _Paradoxes and Problems_ to which we have had frequent allusions.

Lx.x.xII

The ident.i.ty of Donne's "worthy friend F. H." is unknown to me. The letter evidently belongs to the closing years of Donne's life. In printing this letter, Mr. Gosse (_Life and Letters of John Donne, II, 254_) quotes from Walton:

"The latter part of his life may be said to be a continued study; for as he usually preached once a week, if not oftener, so after his Sermon he never gave his eyes rest till he had chosen out a new Text, and that night cast his Sermon into a forme, and his Text into divisions; and the next day betook himself to consult the Fathers, and so commit his meditations to his memory, which was excellent. But upon Sat.u.r.day he usually gave himself and his mind a rest from the weary burthen of his week's meditations, and usually spent that day in visitation of friends and other diversions of his thoughts; and would say that _he gave both his body and mind that refreshment, that he might be enabled to do the work of the day following, not faintly, but with courage and cheerfulness_."

Lx.x.xIII

To Sir Henry Goodyer, but a few weeks earlier than the date of LXI, and at about the same time as LXXV. "Mr. Selden" is the great John Selden.

Lx.x.xIV

Written from Sir John Danvers' house in Chelsea where Donne had gone to stay at the height of the plague which raged in London during the summer of 1625. Lady Danvers was Donne's old friend, Mrs. Magdalen Herbert. (See note to XLIV, above.) Sir Edward Sackville became Earl of Dorset on the 28th of March, 1624, on the death of his brother, the third Earl. King James died on the 27th of March, 1625. "The Queen" is Henrietta Maria, whom Charles married a few weeks after his accession.

Lx.x.xV

To George Gerrard. "The 14th of April, here (i.e., at Paris) 1612" would in England be April 4th, 1612. For the criticisms of his poems in honour of Elizabeth Drury to which Donne here makes reply, see note to XXVI above.

Lx.x.xVI

To George Gerrard, and apparently written within a few weeks of the date of the next letter, addressed to the same friend and dated January 7th 1630[1] in the 1719 edition of Donne's Poems to which it is appended.

Lx.x.xVII

To George Gerrard. Walton quotes this letter in full in his _Life of Donne_, and in spite of their length his comments cannot be omitted here:

"We left the Author sick in Ess.e.x, where he was forced to spend much of that winter, by reason of his disability to remove from thence: And having never for almost twenty yeares omitted his personall Attendance on his Majesty in that moneth in which he was to attend and preach to him; nor having ever been left out of the Roll and number of Lent-Preachers; and there being then (in January 1630[1]) a report brought to London, or raised there, that Dr. Donne was dead: That report gave him occasion to write this following letter to a friend....

"Before that moneth ended, he was designed to preach upon his old constant day, the first Friday in Lent; he had notice of it, and had in his sicknesse so prepared for that imployment, that as he had long thirsted for it, so he resolved his weaknesse should not hinder his journey; he came therefore to London, some few dayes before his day appointed. At his being there many of his friends (who with sorrow saw his sicknesse had left him onely so much flesh as did cover his bones) doubted his strength to performe that task; and therefore disswaded him from undertaking it, a.s.suring him however, it was like to shorten his daies; but he pa.s.sionately denyed their requests, saying, _he would not doubt that G.o.d who in many weaknesses had a.s.sisted him with an unexpected strength, would not now withdraw it in his last employment; professing an holy ambition to performe that sacred work_.

And when to the amazement of some beholders he appeared in the Pulpit, many thought he presented himself not to preach mortification by a living voice, but mortality by a decayed body and dying face. And doubtlesse many did secretly ask that question in _Ezekiel, Do these bones live? or can that soul Organize that tongue, to speak so long time as the sand in that gla.s.se will move towards its Centre, and measure out an hour of this dying mans unspent life?_ Doubtlesse it cannot; yet after some faint pauses in his zealous prayer, his strong desires enabled his weake body to discharge his memory of his preconceived meditations; which were of dying, the Text being, _To G.o.d the Lord belong the issues from Death_. Many that then saw his teares, and heard his hollow voice, professing they thought the Text prophetically chosen, and that Dr. Donne _had preach't his own funerall sermon_.

"Being full of joy that G.o.d had enabled him to performe this desired duty, he hastened to his house, out of which he never moved, till like St.

_Stephen_, _he was carryed by devout men to his Grave_."

Lx.x.xVIII

This letter, addressed, I suppose, to Donne's sister Jane, the wife of Sir Thomas Grymes, is printed in the 1719 edition of the Poems, and is there dated "Amyens, the 7th of _Febr._ here, 1611," i.e., January 28th, 1612.

Lx.x.xIX

To George Gerrard, and written from Paris not long after the date of the preceding letter.

XC

Written in 1624, during Donne's recovery from a dangerous illness. Here, as elsewhere, Walton is our best commentator:

"Within a few dayes his distempers abated; and as his strength increased, so did his thankfulnesse to Almighty G.o.d, testified in his _book of Devotions_, which he published at his recovery. In which the reader may see, the most secret thoughts that then possest his soul, Paraphrased and made publick; a book that may not unfitly be called a Sacred picture of spiritual extasies, occasioned and applyable to the emergencies of that sicknesse, which being a composition of _Meditations_, _disquisitions_ and _prayers_, he writ on his sick-bed; herein imitating the holy Patriarchs, who were wont to build their Altars in that place, where they had received their blessings."

Donne's _Devotions upon Emergent Occasions and Several Steps in my Sickness_ was published in 1624, and dedicated "To the most excellent prince, Prince Charles."

XCI

To George Gerrard, and written from the Low Countries, where Donne was travelling with Sir Robert Drury in the late summer of 1612.

XCII