haste from that to his own house at Lothesley, in the county of Surrey; but too late, by reason of some faithful promises which were so interchangeably passed, as never to be violated by either party.* * It seems to have been at this time (and not at a later period of his life, as supposed by Chalmers,) that Donne wrote the following beautiful " Elegy to his Mistris:" By our first strange and fatal interviewe,- Of hurtes, which spyes and rivalls threatened mee, I calme eye begg: But by thy parent's wrath By all paynes which want and divorcement hath, I conjure thee: and all those oathes which I Divorcement from the lady of his love, had driven him to contemplate estrangement from his native land; and she the romantic idea of following him in the character of a page. He continues: Thou shalt not love by means so dangerous : He pictures to her the dangers of her disguise being discovered; and conjures her to remain : Oh stay here; for, for thee England is only a worthy gallery To walke in expectation, till from thence He imagines her "midnight startings," dreaming that she saw her lover" alone on the white alpes, assailed, and slayne;" and he concludes : Augur mee better chance, except dread Jove -MS. Bib. Harl. 4955, fo. 100. These promises were only known to themselves; and the friends of both parties used much diligence and many arguments to kill or cool their affections to each other, but in vain ;* for love is a flattering mischief, that hath denied aged and wise men a foresight of those evils that too often prove to be the children of that blind father; a passion, that carries us to commit errors with as much ease as whirlwinds remove feathers, and begets in us an unwearied industry to the attainment of what we desire. And such an industry did, notwithstanding much watchfulness against it, bring them secretly together+-I forbear to tell the manner * One of Donne's Elegies, viz: "His parting from her," appears to have been written at this time : Since I must goe, and I must roame, come night, Shadow that hell unto me, which alone I am to suffer when my soule is gone. Much more I could, but many wordes have made As I shall never loke for less in you.-Elegy xiv. + This period of his courtship has also been the subject of his muse, and not the least remarkable of his poetical writings Once, and but once, found in thy company, By all the men that have been robed that yeare, So am I (by this traiterous means surprised) By thy hydroptique father catechised." Though he had wont to search with glazed eyes Though he hath sworn-that he would remove Yet close and secret as our souls we've been. He describes the endeavours of the lady's family to discover their suspected meetings. All were spies upon his actions: yea, even " the grim eight-feet-high, iron-bound" porter : He that to ope the first gate, doth as wide Cautious, even to his footsteps;- I taught my silkes their whistling to forbeare; E'en my oppress'd shoes-dumb and speechless were: he was at last betrayed by his courtly effeminacy : By thee, the greatest staine to man's estate, Falls on us-to be called effeminate. He was so highly scented, according to the fashion "much loved in Princes' hall," that his lady's father tracked him out by the trail: how, and at last to a marriage too, without the allowance of those friends whose approbation always was, and ever will be, necessary to make even a virtuous love become lawful. But oh! too common ill, I brought with me, * * The explosion may be imagined: its direful consequences are the subject of the text. The Elegy descriptive of these "bitter-sweets," is entitled The Perfume. --Donne's Poems, p. 76. Some of the circumstances which Walton forebore to tell, are related in the following letter to Sir George More, yet extant at Loseley : Sr, If a very respective feare of yor displeasure, and a doubt that my L., whom I know owt of yo' worthiness to love yow much, would be so compassionate wth yo as to add his anger to yo", did not so much increase my sicknes as that I cannot stir, I had taken the boldnes to have donne the office of this letter by wayting upon yow myself to have given yow truthe and clearnes of this matter between yo daughter and me, and to show to yo" plainly the limits of or fault, by wch I know yor wisdome wyll proportion the punishm'. So long since as her being at York House this had foundac'on, and so much then of promise and contract built upon yt as whowt violence to conscience might not be shaken. At her lyeing in town this last Parliam', I found meanes to see her twice or thrice. We both knew the obligac❜ons that lay upon us, and we adventurd equally, and about three weeks before Christmas we married. And as at the doinge, there were not usd above fyve persons, of wheh I protest to you by my salvation there was not one that had any dependence or relation to yo", so in all the passage of it did I forbear to use any suche person, who by furtheringe of yt might violate any trust or duty towards yo". The reasons why I did not foreacquaint yo" wth it (to deale with the same plainnes that I have usd) were these. I knew my p'sent estate lesse then fitt for her, I knew (yet I knew not why) that I stood not right in yo opinion. I knew that to have given any intimac'on of yt had been to impossibilitate the whole matt. And then having these honest purposes in or harts, and those fetters in o consciences, me thinks we should be pardoned, if or fault be but this, that wee did not, by fore-revealinge of yt, consent to o hindrance and torment. Sr, I acknowledge my fault to be so great, as I dare scarse offer any other prayer to yow in myne own behalf then this, to beleeve this truthe, that I neythr had dishonest end nor meanes. But for her whom I tender much more then my fortunes or lyfe (els I woould I might neythr joy in this lyfe, nor enjoy the next) I humbly beg of yow that she may not to her danger feele the terror of yor sodaine anger. I know this letter shall find yo" full of passion; but I know no passion can alter yor reason and wisdome, to wch I adventure to com'end these particulers; that yt is irremediably donne; that if yow incense my L. yo" destroy her and me; that yt is easye to give us happines, and that my endevors and industrie, if it please yo to prosper them, may soone make me somewhat worthyer of her. If any take the advantage of yor displeasure against me, and fill yow with ill thoughts of me, my And that the knowledge of their marriage might not fall, like an unexpected tempest, on those that were unwilling to have it so; and that pre-apprehensions might make it the less enormous when it was known, it was purposely whispered into the ears of many, that it was so, yet by nqne that could affirm it. But, to put a period to the jealousies of Sir George, (doubt often begetting more restless thoughts than the certain knowledge of what we fear,) the news was, in favour to Mr. Donne, and with his allowance, made known to Sir George, by his honourable friend and neighbour, Henry, earl of Northumberland; but it was to Sir George so comfort is, that yo" know that fayth and thanks are due to them onely that speak when theyr informac'ons might do good; w'ch now yt cannot work towards any party. For my excuse I can say nothing, except I knew what were sayd to yow. S', I have truly told yow this matt", and I humbly beseeche yow so to deale in yt as the persuasions of Nature, Reason, Wisdome, and Christianity shall inform yo"; and to accept the vowes of one whom yo" may now rayse or scatter, wch are that as my love ys directed unchangeably upon her, so all my labors shall concur to her contentment, and to show my humble obedience to yo❜self. "Yors in all duty and humblenes, "From my lodginge in ye Savoy, 20 Februar: 1600-1." J. DONNE." * Henry Percy, ninth earl of Northumberland, was born in 1564, and succeeded to the title in 1585. In 1588 he was one of those gallant young noblemen who hired ships at their own charge, and joined the fleet then dispatched against the Spanish armada: in 1593, he was invested with the order of the garter. On the death of the queen, the earl was one of the first to welcome the accession of the House of Stuart, and enjoyed the royal favor correspondent with his rank and service, until suspicion visited him with the heavy hand of proven guilt. Indeed it has not escaped the imputation of ingratitude in the king, that, on mere suspicion of a foreknowledge of the complicity of his cousin, Thomas Percy, in the Gunpowder Treason Plot, this nobleman, who, in his own words " never fostered in his bosom one disloyall or undutifull thought," was degraded from all offices of trust, profit, or honour, imprisoned fifteen years in the Tower of London, and suffered a fine of £20,000. His troubles on this account are very pathetically set forth in his letters preserved at Sion House; displaying a noble and dignified bearing under oppression, that could only have proceeded from the innocent. After an imprisonment of three years, "expecting every day an ende and clearinge of that which his soul could never accuse itself of in the least degree," the earl wrote thus to the king: "At my last solliciting of your majesty, by my wife, to think of my libertie, it pleased you to saie, you would take your owne tyme. I have not byne importunate since, because I conceaved it disliked you; though it be a matter almost the dearest thing a man enjoyes. Your majesty hath byne a king manie years, and can judge of offences. I will not, therefore, immeasurably unwelcome, and so transported him, that, as though his passion of anger and inconsideration might exceed theirs of love and error, he presently engaged his sister, the lady Ellesmere, to join with him to procure her lord to discharge dispute of myne, but must still be an intercessor for my selfe to your majesty, for your favor; and I beseech you, let the former desire of my house and selfe, to doe you service, move you somewhat; since I doubt not, but that I shall see the day, that you will esteeme me to have byne, as honest and faithful a servant, as ever you had in England. It pleased your majestie, among other speeches, uppon her urging of my innocencie, to wish I could prove that Percie gave me not notice (the verie maine pointe of my troubles). Your majestie, that is soe greate a scholler, and so juditious, cannot but know, how impossible it is to prove a negative; and therefore, most humblie laying at your majesties feete this humble petition, I rest your majestyes loyall subject." In another letter, in which he shows the impossibility of raising the money of any chapman, and offers the Sion estate to the king-(the only lands not entailed, and of the estimated value of £31,000)—in discharge of his fine, the earl writes: "May it please your majesty, to give me leave to open partly the state as it now standeth with my children, and humbly to present you with an offer that may help them, and of more value to your majesty. My daughters are of 15 and 14 years of age; the time of their preferments, for all their lives, is at hande, and will not admitt long delay. The installmente of the fine, as your majesty hath imposed it, cannot be paid in seven yeares, they provided for, and all the rest; and myself relieved as they ought, and as the world will expect from me in duty of a father.... Thus your majesty seeth the estate of the thinge; what it is; how the care of a father (in which arte your majesty is understandinge, and will judge other men by yourselfe) beholding the fortunes of my daughters, rather choosing to lay a losse upon myselfe, and my heir, which time may recover, than of them which may not endure time to take up their advancements. "In humble manner therefore, I lay the same at your majesty's feet, to give your majesty satisfaction; and if your majesty, out of your wisdom, do find this of more worth than the sommes as it is so required, will of your bounty give my daughters any thing towards their preferments, they and myself shall accept of it as a gift from so bountifull a king."-Collins. Dorothy, his eldest daughter, became wife of Robert Sidney, second earl of Leicester; and Lucy, without his consent, was married to the king's favorite, the lord James Haye, as elsewhere stated; on which occasion, the earl is said to have discovered an alacrity of resentment, kindred to that which he had endeavoured to overcome in the father-in-law of Dr. Donne. The earl survived his imprisonment some years, and died at his seat at Petworth, Nov. 5, 1632, the anniversary of that event which had proved his greatest misfortune. Wood describes him, as "a learned man himself, and a generous favourer of all good learning." During his confinement he allowed salaries to several eminent scholars to attend him; and Sir Walter Raleigh was a companion of his involuntary retirement. |