The reading of some MSS., 'lefte friends,' is quite a possible one. Carleton, writing from Venice to Chamberlain, says: 'Let me tell you, for your comfort (for I imagine what is mine is yours) that my last news from the left island ... took knowledge of my vigilancy and diligency.' The 'left island' is Great Britain, and Donne may mean no more than that 'we can neither get back to our friends nor on to our enemies.' There may be no allusion to Raleigh's ships. l. 23. _the Calenture._ 'A disease incident to sailors within the tropics, characterized by delirium in which the patient, it is said, fancies the sea to be green fields, and desires to leap into it.' O.E.D. Theobald had the Calenture in mind when he conjectured that Falstaff 'babbled o' green fields'. PAGE =179=, l. 33. _Like Bajazet encaged, &c._: an echo of Marlowe's _Tamburlaine_: There whiles he lives shall Bajazet be kept; And where I go be thus in triumph drawn: . . . . . . . . This is my mind, and I will have it so. Not all the kings and emperors of the earth, If they would lay their crowns before my feet, Shall ransom him or take him from his cage: The ages that shall talk of Tamburlaine, Even from this day to Plato's wondrous year, Shall talk how I have handled Bajazet. There are frequent references to this scene in contemporary literature. ll. 35-6. _a Miriade Of Ants, &c._ 'Erat ei' (i.e. Tiberius) 'in oblectamentis serpens draco, quem ex consuetudine manu sua cibaturus, cum consumptum a formicis invenisset, monitus est ut vim multitudinis caveret.' Suetonius, _Tib._ 72. l. 37. _Sea-goales_, i.e. sea-gaols. 'goale' was a common spelling. See next poem, l. 52, 'the worlds thy goale.' Strangely enough, neither the Grolier Club editor nor Chambers seems to have recognized the word here, in _The Calme_, though in the next poem they change 'goale' to 'gaol' without comment. The Grolier Club editor retains 'goales' and Chambers adopts the reading of the later editions, 'sea-gulls.' A gull would have no difficulty in overtaking the swiftest ship which ever sailed. Grosart takes the passage correctly. 'Sea-goales' is an accurate definition of the galleys.' Finny-chips' is a vivid description of their appearance. Compare: One of these small bodies fitted so, This soul inform'd, and abled it to row Itselfe with finnie oars. _Progresse of the Soule_, I. 23. Never again shall I with finny oar Put from, or draw unto the faithful shore. Herrick, _His Tears to Thamesis_.