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Classical Allusions in the Poetry of Donne

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 February 2021

Beatrice Johnson
Beatrice Johnson*
Affiliation:
San Mateo, California
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Extract

A recent critic declares of John Donne: “He had none of that enthusiasm for Greek culture which distinguished More, Colet, and Ascham. He appears to have studied certain Greek authors in Latin translations. . . . . His learning was chiefly of the Mediaeval type.” No evidence, it is true, comes forward to establish Donne's acquaintance at first hand with Greek authors. At the same time, an examination of the allusions to Greek mythology in the poetry of Donne makes it clear that he had part in the all-but-universal interest of the Elizabethans in classical material, and that he uses this material with characteristic independence and originality.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 43 , Issue 4 , December 1928 , pp. 1098 - 1109
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1928

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References

page 1098 note 1 E. M. Simpson, A Study of the Prose Works of John Donne, p. 46, and cf. Ramsay, Les Doctrines Mediaevales ches Donne, part II, Chs. 1 and 2, and Appendix I. Also Donne's Poetical Works ed. by Grierson, I, 35; Gosse, Life and Letters of John Donne, p. 14; and Jessopp, John Donne, p. 17.

page 1098 note 2 The sonnet cycles referred to are: B. Griffin's Fidessa; H. Constable's Diana; B. Barnes' Parthenophil and Parthenope; W. Percy's Coelia; R. L.'s Diella; W. Smith's Chloris; Lord Brooke's (F. Greville) Caelica; R. Tofte's Laura; G. Fletcher's Licia; R. Barnfield's Cynthia; N. Breton's The Passionate Shepherd; T. Watson's The Passionate Centurie; T. Lodge's Phillis; Daniel's To Delia; Drayton's Idea's Mirror and Idea; Sidney's Astrophel and Stella; and Spenser's Amoretti. The sonnets of Wyatt, Surrey and Shakespeare are also used.

page 1098 note 3 Drayton, 31; Barnes, 37; Smith, 41. In actual references to the gods, Watson leads with 35; Drayton follows with 26; Barnes, 25; Donne, 23; the lowest are Percy, 3; Constable, 4; Daniel, 4; with a median of 14.

page 1099 note 4 Mentioned also by Percy and Drayton.

page 1099 note 5 By R. L.

page 1099 note 6 By Spenser and Drayton.

page 1099 note 7 By R. L., Smith, and Watson.

page 1099 note 8 Phoebus is used by twelve; not by Constable, Percy, Barnfield, Lodge, Wyatt, Surrey, Daniel, and Drayton; Phaeton, by Griffin, Tofte, and Barnes. Donne uses more names than any of the sonnetteers except Watson, Barnes, and Drayton.

page 1099 note 9,10,11 Astrophel and Stella.

page 1099 note 12 Shakespeare, Sonnet 148.

page 1099 note 13 Sonnet 137.

page 1099 note 14 Sonnet 153.

page 1100 note 15 Sonnet 154.

page 1100 note 16 Donne, Eclogue.

page 1100 note 17 The Constant Lover.

page 1100 note 18 Elegy XVIII.

page 1100 note 19,20,21 Love's Deity.

page 1100 note 22 Love's Exchange.

page 1101 note 23 Elegy XIX.

page 1101 note 24 Love's Exchange.

page 1101 note 25 Second Anniversary.

page 1101 note 26 Obsequies to Lord Harrington.

page 1101 note 27 On Sidney's Translating the Psalms.

page 1101 note 28 “Fool, look in thy heart and write.”

page 1101 note 29 Muse is “dumb-born.”

page 1101 note 30 Sonnet 103: “What poverty my muse brings forth.”

page 1101 note 31 Letter to Rowland Woodward.

page 1101 note 32 See above, footnote 2.

page 1101 note 33 Sonnets 38 and 78. Donne subtly criticizes these writers in Love's Growth.

Love's not so pure and abstract as they use

To say, which have no mistress but their Muse.

page 1102 note 34 clgue.

page 1102 note 35 La Corona.

page 1102 note 36 Letter to Mr. . . “If thou unto thy Muse be married.” Cf. Spenser and Shakespeare in this. Spenser's muse was at times “absent in foreign lands.” Shakespeare addresses her in Sonnet 101: “Oh truant Must!” and like Donne speaks of the marital relation in connection with his muse; in Sonnet 82: I grant thou wert not married to my Muse.

page 1102 note 37 Satire V.

page 1102 note 38 “Muses scorn to dwell in vulgar brains.”

page 1102 note 39 Not of “pack-horse” breed; must have spirit and fire.

page 1102 note 40 Inferno, Canto IV.

page 1102 note 41 Love's Growth.

page 1103 note 42 In the Eclogue of 1613:

“And were the doctrine new

That the earth mov'd, this day would make it true.“

In a verse letter to Countess of Bedford:

“As new philosophy arrests the Sunne

And bids the passive earth about it runne. “

“First seeds of every creature are in us”

In The First Anniversary, 1612:

“The new Philosophy calls all in doubt,

The Element of fire is quite put out;

The Sun is lost, and th' earth, and no man's wit

Can well direct him where to look for it.. “

“They have impaled within a Zodiake The free-borne Sun.

“Man hath weav'd out a net, and this net throwne

Upon the Heavens, and now they are his owne.

And Oh, it can no more be questioned

That beauties best, proportion, is dead.“

Also, in Sermon “At Funeral of Sir William Cokayne, Knt.” I need not call in new Philosophy that denies a settlednesse, an acquiescence in the very body of the earth, but makes the Earth move in that place, where we thought the Sunne had moved.. “

3. From Sermon “At Funeral of Sir William Cokayne, Knt” Love's Growth: “So many spheares, but one heaven make.”

page 1103 note 43 Love's Alchemy.

page 1104 note 44 Good Friday.

page 1104 note 45 Litany.

page 1104 note 46 On the translating of the Psalms by Sidney.

page 1104 note 47 “At St. Pauls upon Christmas Day.” “To the King at White-hall,” illustrate the point

page 1104 note 48 Hymn to God the Father.

page 1104 note 49 Elegy XII.

page 1104 note 50 Holy Sonnets X.

page 1104 note 51 Letter to R. Woodward.

page 1105 note 52 Satire V.

page 1105 note 53 Letter to Countess of Bedford.

page 1105 note 54 2 Henry, IV, 3: 1.

page 1105 note 55 Comedy of Errors.

page 1105 note 56 Midsummer's Night's Dream.

page 1105 note 57 Comedy of Errors.

page 1105 note 58 2 Henry VI, 4: 1.

page 1105 note 59 Coriolanus, 3: 1.

page 1105 note 60 Anthony and Cleopatra, 4: 6.

page 1105 note 61 Jove is mentioned by sixteen of the Elizabethans, omitting Griffin, Brooke, Tofte, and Wyatt,

page 1105 note 62 Love's Deity.

page 1105 note 63 Verse Letter to Countess of Bedford.

page 1106 note 64 Anthony and Cleopatra.

page 1106 note 65 As You Like It.

page 1106 note 66 The Indifferent.

page 1106 note 67 Mentioned also by Shakespeare.

page 1106 note 68 Brooke merely refers to Argus; Breton, “And Love in Argus eyes, Finos Jealousy a fiend”; Tofte wishes for Argus' eyes.

page 1106 note 69 Drayton: “The furies cruel be.”

page 1106 note 70 Fletcher and Lodge refer to Python.

page 1106 note 71 Elegy XIX.

page 1106 note 72 “Go and Catch a Falling Star.”

page 1106 note 73 Elegy XIV.

page 1106 note 74 Ode.

page 1106 note 75 Elegy XVIII.

page 1107 note 76 Hymn to Christ.

page 1107 note 77 The Storm.

page 1107 note 78 The Comparison.

page 1107 note 79 Elery XIII.

page 1107 note 80 Elegy XII.

page 1107 note 81 Eclogue. The myth of Prometheus is retold by Constable, Tofte, Barnes, and Sidney; Drayton merely refers to his aspiration. Smith and Watson repeat the myth of Acteon.

page 1107 note 82 Satire IV. Other references to the myth of Circe are those of Griffin, Circe's rod; R. L., Circe's floods; Tofte, Circe changed to a fountain of tears.

page 1108 note 83 Some of the sonneteers, for example, Watson, seem to pile reference upon reference merely to display a broad knowledge of classical learning.

page 1108 note 84 Valediction to His Book.

page 1108 note 85 Elegy IV.

page 1108 note 86 Elegy XIX.

page 1108 note 87 Elegy XIV.

page 1108 note 88 Elegy XII. Daniel and Watson use term.

page 1108 note 89 Letter to I. L. See Shakespeare's Hamlet for the most effective of his five reference.

page 1108 note 90 Sonnet IX.

page 1108 note 91 Second Anniversary.

page 1109 note 92 Valediction to his Book.

page 1109 note 93 Commendatory Verses upon Mr. T.C.

page 1109 note 94 Griffin and Daniel use the reference. Smith is the only one to refer to Lethe.

page 1109 note 95 Obsequies on Lord Harrington.

page 1109 note 96 Satire IV.