therefore, that those verses in Donne's satire which no method of accenting will cause to scan were deliberate.

This complete break with tradition is proof enough of the extreme independence of Donne, but more evidence is available. In 1593 the five-foot line, whether rimed or free, had to be written true to the norm. It was years later that writers, with Shakespeare in the lead, relaxed the strict laws governing the verse. Yet here we find in Donne's couplets run-on lines, the variable cæsura-in short, a general freedom which recalls Shakespeare's later blank verse. Finally, Donne anticipated the mode of satire which was to be the recognized type. This neither Hall nor Marston did. Each of them has a rather medieval notion of what constitutes satire. Hall for the most part piles up general invective, while Marston indulges in bitter personal attacks. Donne has a totally different method. He uses a walk in company with a Court 'waterfly,' a dissertation upon whose character forms the pièce de résistance, as a thread on which to string a number of biting portraits of other members of the species. There is little, if any, mere personal attack, and no hysterical outcries against vice in general; the satire is conveyed by description, and is seasoned at frequent intervals by sly humour. It was precisely this type which was to become the mode after Casaubon, in 1598, published his edition of Theophrastus.

Enough has been said to show the independence and originality of which Donne gave proof in this his earliest literary venture. As poetry this is not of his best, yet one imagines that any critic reading it as a first attempt would prophesy that here was a writer destined to achievement. The first four lines are excellent; the expression of lines II and 12 could scarcely be improved; the description of the captain

Bright parcell gilt, with forty dead mens pay,

is like a magnesium flash. How could the lines As prentises, or schoole-boyes which doe know Of some gay sport abroad, yet dare not goe,

be bettered? An excellent humour plays through the whole poem, as in the comment on the man who, in taking the wall,

Sells for a little state high libertie;

also in the exceedingly fine line, by far the best in the poem,

And like light dew exhal'd, he flings from mee. Humorous too, but in a lower grade, is

'T may be you smell him not; truely I doe;

while the comic resignation in

But Oh, God strengthen thee, why stopp'st thou so?

is laughable in the extreme.

But apart from individual beauties, the piece

is interesting. The 'drive' which is a distinguishing mark of all Donne's poetry is fully in evidence, and when it is remembered that the roughnesses of metre are largely deliberate it can be safely affirmed that not many young men of twenty-one could present so promising a copy of verses.

Of the writer's character the satire seems to give a most illuminating glimpse. We see so clearly the young man, for the first time, perhaps, free from parental and tutorial control, settled in his rooms, and examining with eager interest the life about him. His pose of the reluctant student is a pleasant subterfuge. He takes little persuading, "and come, lets goe." In reality he is all agog to experience this new world. His sense of humour, too, is a thing pleasant to see, for in future it will be frequently embittered. Under the influence of passion its mordancy will develop too readily into cruelty. For the present he is merely observing and tasting, adventuring abroad and then retreating to his study to record his impressions with clearsighted humour and the unconscious insolence of youth.

Presently his lyrics will show us some of his adventures, but before that we see yet another side of the character of this rather protean youth, and in the process obtain our last glimpse of his satires.

An objection which can be brought against the one already considered is that it is too trivial.

Satire needs gravity of purpose to justify it and to give dignity to its exposures. Whatever else it lacks the third satire of Donne has this qualification, for in it he sets out at length his attitude toward religion, upbraids himself for neglect of it, and enjoins upon himself and others a strenuous search for truth. It was probably at this time, not two years earlier, as Walton says, that Donne "began seriously to survey and consider the body of divinity, as it was then controverted betwixt the reformed and the Roman Church. .. Being to undertake this search, he believed the Cardinal Bellarmine to be the best defender of the Roman Cause, and therefore betook himself to the examination of his reasons ... and about the twentieth year of his age did show the then Dean of Gloucester all the Cardinal's works marked with many weighty observations under his own hand."

Stress has already been laid upon the urgency with which the importance of religious faith was laid upon Donne in his youth; it says much for the permanency of the effect that here, in the full tide of his youth, amid a crowd of other and exceedingly mundane pursuits, he should be meditating, with a sincerity which the reader will certainly recognize, the means of attaining to a settled faith. It was almost inevitable, considering his mode of life, his insatiable intellectual curiosity, and his range of reading, that Donne should have drifted far from his childish beliefs. Almost every intelligent

youth does that, and Donne's critical faculty
was so prominent that the process in his case
was probably both early and very complete.
Yet this satire makes it clear that he was at
bottom aware of the necessity for him of a
faith. The need has not yet become urgent.
There is here little sign of emotional disturb-
ance, his approach to the question being rather
intellectual; he is none the less in earnest.
After a few introductory lines he begins:

Is not our Mistresse faire Religion,
As worthy of all our Soules devotion,
As vertue was to the first blinded age?
Are not heavens joyes as valiant to asswage
Lusts, as earths honour was to them? Alas,
As wee do them in meanes, shall they surpasse
Us in the end, and shall thy fathers spirit
Meete blinde Philosophers in heaven, whose merit
Of strict life may be imputed faith, and heare
Thee, whom hee taught so easie wayes and neare
To follow, damn'd? O if thou dar'st, feare this;
This feare great courage, and high valour is.

There follow examples of desperate courage exercised for gain, or to satisfy a point of honour; the soul is reproached for neglecting God's war against the foul devil" in order to prosecute these other ventures; then comes the exhortation.

Seeke true religion. O where ? Mirreus
Thinking her unhous'd here, and fled from us,
Seekes her at Rome; there, because hee doth

know

That shee was there a thousand yeares agoe,