Opening the text

The Poems of John Donne, Volume 2 (of 2): Edited from the Old Editions and Numerous ManuscriptsDonne, John

General

The Poems of John Donne, Volume 2 (of 2): Edited from the Old Editions and Numerous Manuscripts

Name: The Poems of John Donne, Volume 2 (of 2): Edited from the Old Editions and Numerous Manuscripts
Author: Donne, John

Donne, John

English poetry -- Early modern, 1500-1700

l. 2. _leavened spirit._ This is the reading of _1611_. It was altered
in _1649_ to 'learned', and modern editors have neglected to correct
the error. A glance at the first line shows that 'leavened' is right.
It is leaven which raises bread. A 'leavened spirit' is one easily
puffed up by the 'love of greatness'. There is much more of satire in
such an epithet than in 'learned'.

l. 17. _great Lunatique_, i.e. probably 'great humourist', whose
moods and whims are governed by the changeful moon. See O.E.D., which
quotes:

  Ther (i.e. women's) hertys chaunge never ...
  Ther sect ys no thing lunatyke.
                                                 Lydgate.

'By nativitie they be lunaticke ... as borne under the influence of
Luna, and therefore as firme ... as melting waxe.' Greene, _Mamillia_.

l. 22. _Munster._ The _Cosmographia Universalis_ (1541) of Sebastian
Munster (1489-1552).

l. 22. _Gesner._ The _Bibliotheca Universalis, siue Catalogus Omnium
Scriptorum in Linguis Latina, Graeca, et Hebraica_, 1545, by Conrad
von Gesner of Zurich (1516-1565). Norton quotes from Morhof's
_Polyhistor_: 'Conradus Gesner inter universales et perpetuos
Catalogorum scriptores principatum obtinet'; and from Dr. Johnson:
'The book upon which all my fame was originally founded.'

l. 23. _Gallo-belgicus._ See _Epigrams_.

PAGE =173=, l. 56. _Which casts at Portescues._ Grosart offers the
only intelligible explanation of this phrase. He identifies the
'Portescue' with the 'Portaque' or 'Portegue', the great crusado of
Portugal, worth £3 12_s._, and quotes from Harrington, _On Playe_:
'Where lords and great men have been disposed to play deep play, and
not having money about them, have cut cards instead of counters, with
asseverance (on their honours) to pay for every piece of card so
lost a portegue.' Donne's reference to the use which is to be made of
Coryat's books shows clearly that he is speaking of some such custom
as this. Chambers asks pertinently, would the phrase not be 'for
Portescues'? but 'to cast at Portescues' may have been a term, perhaps
translated. A greater difficulty is that 'Portescue' is not given as a
form of 'Portague' by the O.E.D., but a false etymology connecting it
with 'escus', crowns, may have produced it.

The following poem is also found among the poems prefixed to Coryat's
_Crudities_. It may be by Donne, but was not printed in any edition of
his poems:

_Incipit Ioannes Dones._

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

The Poems of John Donne, Volume 2 (of 2): Edited from the Old Editions and Numerous ManuscriptsDonne, John

General

The Poems of John Donne, Volume 2 (of 2): Edited from the Old Editions and Numerous Manuscripts

Donne, John

English poetry -- Early modern, 1500-1700

l. 2. _leavened spirit._ This is the reading of _1611_. It was altered
in _1649_ to 'learned', and modern editors have neglected to correct
the error. A glance at the first line shows that 'leavened' is right.
It is leaven which raises bread. A 'leavened spirit' is one easily
puffed up by the 'love of greatness'. There is much more of satire in
such an epithet than in 'learned'.

l. 17. _great Lunatique_, i.e. probably 'great humourist', whose
moods and whims are governed by the changeful moon. See O.E.D., which
quotes:

  Ther (i.e. women's) hertys chaunge never ...
  Ther sect ys no thing lunatyke.
                                                 Lydgate.

'By nativitie they be lunaticke ... as borne under the influence of
Luna, and therefore as firme ... as melting waxe.' Greene, _Mamillia_.

l. 22. _Munster._ The _Cosmographia Universalis_ (1541) of Sebastian
Munster (1489-1552).

l. 22. _Gesner._ The _Bibliotheca Universalis, siue Catalogus Omnium
Scriptorum in Linguis Latina, Graeca, et Hebraica_, 1545, by Conrad
von Gesner of Zurich (1516-1565). Norton quotes from Morhof's
_Polyhistor_: 'Conradus Gesner inter universales et perpetuos
Catalogorum scriptores principatum obtinet'; and from Dr. Johnson:
'The book upon which all my fame was originally founded.'

l. 23. _Gallo-belgicus._ See _Epigrams_.

PAGE =173=, l. 56. _Which casts at Portescues._ Grosart offers the
only intelligible explanation of this phrase. He identifies the
'Portescue' with the 'Portaque' or 'Portegue', the great crusado of
Portugal, worth £3 12_s._, and quotes from Harrington, _On Playe_:
'Where lords and great men have been disposed to play deep play, and
not having money about them, have cut cards instead of counters, with
asseverance (on their honours) to pay for every piece of card so
lost a portegue.' Donne's reference to the use which is to be made of
Coryat's books shows clearly that he is speaking of some such custom
as this. Chambers asks pertinently, would the phrase not be 'for
Portescues'? but 'to cast at Portescues' may have been a term, perhaps
translated. A greater difficulty is that 'Portescue' is not given as a
form of 'Portague' by the O.E.D., but a false etymology connecting it
with 'escus', crowns, may have produced it.

The following poem is also found among the poems prefixed to Coryat's
_Crudities_. It may be by Donne, but was not printed in any edition of
his poems:

_Incipit Ioannes Dones._

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

The Poems of John Donne, Volume 2 (of 2): Edited from the Old Editions and Numerous Manuscripts

The Poems of John Donne, Volume 2 (of 2): Edited from the Old Editions and Numerous Manuscripts

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