And wisely tell what hour o'th day Beside he was a shrewd Philosopher; That which was which he could not tell; For th'other, as Great Clerks have done. The Ghosts of defunct Bodies flie; Like words congeal'd in Northern Air. And real ways beyond them all, Could twist as tough a Rope of Sand, 70 08 90 And weave fine Cobwebs, fit for skull He could raise Scruples dark and nice, The Itch, of purpose to be scratch'd; 100 What Adam dreamt of when his Bride In proper terms, such as men smatter Samuel Butler. 120 NOTES. LOVE POEMS. p. 1. The good-morrow. 1. 4. The seaven sleepers den'. The seven young men of Ephesus who during the persecution of Diocletian took refuge in a cavern, and having fallen asleep were there entombed (A. D. 250), but were found alive in 479, in the reign of Theodosius. See Baring-Gould's Lives of the Saints. 1. 20. If our two loves be one', &c. If our two loves are one, dissolution is impossible; and the same is true if though two they are always alike. What is simple, as God or the soul, cannot be dissolved; nor compounds, e. g. the heavenly bodies, between whose elements there is no contrariety. 'Non enim invenitur corruptio, nisi ubi invenitur contrarietas; generationes enim et corruptiones ex contrariis et in contraria sunt' (Aquinas). 'Too good for mere wit. It contains a deep practical truth, this triplet (Coleridge). p. 5. Sweetest love, I do not goe. Il. 6-8. What is probably another arrangement of these lines by the author is found in later editions: At the last must part 'tis best, Thus to use myself in jest By fained deaths to die. p. 7. Aire and Angels. 6 1. 19. Ev'ry thy haire', i. e. 'thy every hair' and 'even thy least hair'. In common use with the superlative; I say such love is never blind; but rather Alive to every the minutest spot. Browning, Paracelsus. 11. 23-4. face, and wings Of aire'. Angels who appeared to 6 men did so by assuming' a body of thickened air, like mist (Aquinas, Summa Theol. i. 51. 2). p. 8. The Anniversarie. 18. ‘inmates', i. e. 'lodgers', not members of the family; sometimes foreigners, strangers'. So spake the Enemie of Mankind, enclos'd Paradise Lost, ix. 494–5. 1. 22. 'wee no more', &c.: 'wee' is the MS. reading, 'now' that of the editions. 'In heaven we shall indeed be blest, happy ; but so will all, equally happy; whereas here on earth we are kings ruling one another, the best of kings ruling the best of subjects.' 'Sir, that all who are happy are equally happy is not A peasant and a philosopher may be equally satisfied, but not equally happy. Happiness consists in the multiplicity of agreeable consciousness. A peasant has not capacity for equal happiness with a philosopher' (Boswell, Johnson). true. p. P. 9. Twicknam garden. Addressed probably to the Duchess of Bedford, who lived at Twickenham, Donne's patroness and the object of some of his most fervid but enigmatic verses. Compare A Nocturnall upon St. Lucies Day. 1. i. 'Blasted with sighs', &c. "The very stones of the Chapel,' he wrote once when preaching in Lent to very small congregations, 'break out into foliage and fruit-I am the only dead thing who can bring forth nothing alive' (Cowley Evangelist, May 1918. Father Congreve). 'Surrounded', i. e. overflow'd. 1. 17. 'groane', so MSS.; the editions read 'grow'. The reference is to the superstition that the mandrake groaned or shrieked when torn up with a fatal effect to the hearer. 1. 18. Or a stone fountaine', &c. Nè già mai neve sotto al sol disparve |