Thou, like the dying swan, didst lately fing
Thy mournful dirge in audience of the King;
When pale looks and faint accents of thy breath
Prefented fo to life that piece of death,
That it was fear'd and prophefy'd by all
Thou thither cam'ft to preach thy funeral.
Oh! hadft thou in an elegiac knell

Rung out unto the world thine own farewell,
And in thy high victorious numbers beat
The folemn meafures of thy griev'd retreat,
Thou might'it the poet's fervice now have mift,
As well as then thou didst prevent the priest:
And never to the world beholden be,
So much as for an epitaph for thee.

I do not like the office: nor is't fit

Thou, who did'ft lend our age fuch fums of wit,
Shouldft now reborrow from her bankrupt mine
That oar to bury thee which first was thine;
Rather ftill leave us in thy debt :—and know,
Exalted foul! more glory 'tis to owe
Thy memory, what we can never pay,
Than with embased coin those rites defray.

Commit we then thee to thyself, nor blame
Our drooping loves, that thus to thine own fame
Leave thee executor, fince but thine own
No pen could do thee juftice, nor bays crown
Thy vaft deferts; fave that we nothing can
Depute to be thy afhes' guardian.

So jewellers no art or metal truft

To form the diamond, but the diamond's duft,

H. K.

AN ELEGY ON DOCTOR DONNE.

OUR Donne is dead! and we may fighing say,
We had that man where Language chofe to ftay
And fhow her utmoft power. I would not praise
That and his great wit, which in our vain days
Make others proud; but as thefe ferv'd to unlock
That cabinet, his mind, where such a stock
Of knowledge was repos'd, that I lament
Our just and general caufe of difcontent.,

And I rejoice I am not fo fevere,
But as I write a line, to weep a tear
For his deceafe: Such fad extremities
Can make fuch men as I write elegies.

And wonder not; for when fo great a lofs
Falls on a nation, and they flight the crofs,
God hath rais'd prophets to awaken them
From their dull lethargy; witness my pen,
Not us'd to upbraid the world, though now it must
Freely and boldly, for the cause is juft.

Dull age! oh, I would fpare thee, but thou'rt worse;
Thou art not only dull, but haft a curfe

Of black ingratitude: If not, couldst thou

Part with this matchlefs man, and make no vow

For thee and thine fuccefsively to pay

Some fad remembrance to his dying day?

Did his youth fcatter poetry, wherein
Lay love's philofophy? Was every fin
Pictur'd in his fharp fatires, made so foul

That fome have fear'd Sin's fhapes, and kept their foul
Safer by reading verfe? Did he give days,

Paft marble monuments, to those whofe praise
He wou'd perpetuate? Did he (I fear
Envy will doubt) these at his twentieth

year

r?

But, more matur'd; did his rich foul conceive,
And in harmonious holy numbers weave
A crown of facred fonnets *, fit t' adorn

A dying martyr's brow, or to be worn
On that blefs'd head of Mary Magdalen,

After fhe wip'd Chrift's feet, but not till then?
Did he (fit for fuch penitents as fhe
And he to use) leave us a Letanie 1

"La Corona," a poem, written by Dr. Donne, and confifting of feven holy fonnets, the first line of each fonnet beginning with the laft line of the preceding one, the poem beginning and ending with the fame line-namely

Deigne at my hands this crown of prayer and praise." The subjects are-Annunciation-Nativitie-Temple-crucifying-Re

furrection-Afcention.

1 A poem fo called, written by Donne, who, in a letter to his friend, Sir Henry Goodyere, gives this account of it. "Since my imprison"ment in my bed I have made a meditation in verfe, which I call a "Litany: The word, you know, imports no other than fupplication;

"but

66

Which all devout men love, and doubtlefs fhall,
As times grow better, grow more classical?
Did he write hymns, for piety and wit,
Equal to thofe great grave Prudentius writ?
Spake he all languages? Knew he all laws?
The grounds and ufe of phyfic-but, because
'Twas mercenary, wav'd it? went to fee
That happy place of Chrift's nativity m?
Did he return and preach him? preach him fo,
As, fince St. Paul, none ever did? they know
Those happy fouls that hear'd him know this truth.
Did he confirm thy ag'd, convert thy youth?
Did he thefe wonders? and is his dear lofs
Mourn'd by fo few?-few for fo great a crofs.

But fure the filent are ambitious all
To be close mourners at his funeral.
If not; in common pity they forbear,
By repetitions, to renew our care:

Or knowing grief conceiv'd and hid, confumes
Man's life infenfibly (as poifon's fumes

Corrupt the brain), take filence for the way
T'enlarge the foul from these walls, mud and clay,
(Materials of this body) to remain

With him in heaven, where no promifcuous pain
Lefsens those joys we have; for with him all
Are fatisfy'd with joys essential.

Dwell on these joys, my thoughts!-Oh!" do not call
Grief back, by thinking on his funeral.

Forget he lov'd me: Waste not my fwift years
Which hafte to David's feventy, fill'd with fears
And forrows for his death: Forget his parts,
They find a living grave in good men's hearts:
And, for my first is daily paid for fin,
Forget to pay my fecond figh for him:
Forget his powerful preaching; and forget
I am his convert. Oh my frailty! let

"but all churches have one form of fupplication by that name. Amongst ancient annals, I mean fome 800 years, I have met two "Letanies in Latin verfe, which gave me not the reafon of my medi"tations; for in good faith I thought not upon them, but they give me a defence, if any man to a Layman and a Private impute it as a "fault to take fuch divine and publique names to his own little thoughts." (Letters, &c. p. 32.)

66

66

But it appears from the preceding pages, that his intentions of vifiting the Holy Land were fruftrated.

My flesh be no more heard; it will obtrude
This lethargy: So fhould my gratitude,
My vows of gratitude fhould be fo broke,
Which can no more be, than his virtues, spoke
By any but himfelf: For which caufe I
Write no encomiums, but this elegy;
Which, as a free-will offering, I here give

Fame and the world; and, parting with it, grieve
I want abilities fit to fet forth

A monument as matchlefs as his worth.

APRIL 7, 1631.

IZ. WA.

APPENDIX.

THE WORKS OF DOCTOR JOHN DONNE,

DEAN OF ST. PAUL'S, LONDON.

I. "PSEUDO-MARTYR; wherein out of certaine Propopofitions and Gradations this Conclufion is evicted, that those which are of the Romane Religion in this Kingdome, may and ought to take the Oath of Allegeance." London, 1610, quarto.

II. "DEVOTIONS upon EMERGENT OCCASIONS, and feveral STEPS in my SICKNESS; digefted into-1. Meditations upon our humane Condition.-2. Expoftulations and Debatements with God.-3. Prayers upon feveral Occafions to him." London, 1624, 12mo.

This book is dedicated to Prince Charles. The fubjects of the different devotions are exprefsed in twenty-two hexameter verfes prefixed to the work.

"Stationes five periodi in morbo, ad quas referuntur meditationes fequentes.

1. Infultus morbi primus. 2. Pòft actio læfa.

3. Decubitus fequitur tandem. 4. Medicusque vocatur.

5. Solus adeft. 6. Metuit. 7. Socius fibi jungier inftat," &c. A fourth edition of this work appeared in 1634.

III. "The ANTIENT HISTORY of the SEPTUAGINT; written in Greeke by Arifteus 1900 Yeares fince. Of his Voyage to Hierufalem, as Ambafsador from Ptolomeus Philadelphus unto Eleazer then Pontiffe of the Jews. Concerning the firft Tranflation of the Bible by the 72 Interpreters; with many other remarkable Circumftances. Newly done into English by J. DONNE." London, 1633, 8vo, or 16mo.

"N. B. There are added Proofes concerning this Hiftory, and a fhort Difcourfe of the Antiquity and Dignity of the Sacred Bookes, and Excellency of their Inspired Writer the Prophet Mofes."

A new edition of this version, said to be very much corrected from the original, was published in 1685, 12mo.

IV. “JUVENILIA, or certaine Paradoxes and Problems." London, 1633, quarto.

V. "POEMS by J. D. with ELEGIES on the AUTHOR's DEATH."-1633, quarto. The fame in 1635, Svo or 16mo; and again in 1654, 8vo or 16mo. The laft edition contains a