Thefe he writes not; nor for thefe written payes, Therefore fpares no length (as in those first dayes When Luther was profeft, he did defire

Short Pater nofters, faying as a Fryer

Each day his Beads; but having left thofe laws, Adds to Chrift's prayer, the power and glory clause) But when he fells or changes land, h'impaires

The writings, and (unwatch'd) leaves out, fes heires, As flily as any Commentator goes by

Hard words, or fenfe; or, in Divinity

As controverters in vouch'd Texts, leave out Schrewd words, which might against them clear the doubt.

Where are thefe fpread woods which cloath'd

heretofore

Thofe bought lands? not built, not burnt within

door.

NOTES.

VER. 104. So Luther &c.) Our Poet, by judiciously tranfpofing this fine fimilitude, has given new luftre to his Author's thought. The Lawyer (fays Dr. Donne) enlarges the legal inftruments for conveying property to the bigness of gloss'd civil Laws, when it is to fecure his own ill-got wealth. But let the fame Lawyer convey property for you, and he then omits even the neceffary words; and becomes as concife and hafty as the loofe poftils of a modern Divine. So Luther while a Monk, and, by his Inftitution, obliged to fay Mafs, and pray in perfon for others, thought even his Pater nofter too long., But when he fet up for a Governor in the Church, and his business was to direct others how to pray for the fuccefs of his new Model; he then lengthened the Pater-nofter by a new claufe.

This re

But let them write for you, each rogué impairs
The deeds and dextroufly omits, ses heires:
No Commentator can more flily pafs

O'er a learn'd. unintelligible place;

Or, in quotation, fhrewd, Divines leave out

100

Those words, that would against them clear the doubt.

So Luther thought the Pater-nofter long, When doom'd to fay his beads and Even-fong; 105 But having caft his cowle, and left thote laws, Adds to Chrift's pray'r, the Pow'r and Glory clause.

The lands are bought; but where are to be

Those ancient, woods, that fhaded all the ground? We fee no new-built palaces afpire,

No kitchens emulate the vestal fire.

NOTES.

110.

prefentation of the first part of his conduct was to ridicule his want of devotion; as the other, where he tells us, that the addition was the power and glory clause, was to fatirize his ambition; and both together to infinuate that, from a Monk, he was become totally fecularized. About this time of his life Dr. Donne had a strong propensity to Popery, which appears from several Strokes in these fatires. We find amongst his works, a fhort fatirical thing called a Catalogue of rare books, one article of which is intitled, M. Lutherus de abbreviatione Orationis Dominica, alluding to Luther's omiffion of the concluding Doxology, in his two Cate- \ chifmes, which fhews he was fond of the ioke; and, in the first inftance (for the fake of his moral) at the expence of truth. As his putting Erafmus and. Reuchlin in the rank of Lully and Agrippa fhews what were then his fentiments of Reformation.

Where the old landlords troops, and almes? In halls

Carthufian fafts, and fulfome Bacchanals

Equally I hate. Mean's bleft. In rich men's homes

I bid kill fome beasts, but no hecatombs,

None ftarve, none furfeit fo. But (oh) we allow

Good works as good, but out of fashion now,

Like old rich wardrobes. But my words none draws

Within the vaft reach of th' huge statutes jawes,

NOTES.

It is one

I will only obferve, that this Catalogue was written in imitation
of Rabelais's famous Catalogue of the Library of St. Victor.
of the finest ftrokes in that extravagant farire (which was then
the Manual of the Wits) and fo became the fubject of much imi-
tation; the best of which are this of Dr. Donne's and one of Sir
Thomas Brown's.

VER. 120. These as good works, &c.) Dr. Donne fays,
But (oh) we allow

Good works as good, but out of fashion now.

The popish Doctrine of good works was one of thofe abuses of
Religion which the Church of England condemns in its Articles.
To this the Poet's words fatirically allude. And having through-
out this fatire had feveral fings at the Reformation, which it

Where are thofe troops of Poor, that throng'd of yore The good old landlord's hofpitable door?

Well, I could wifh, that ftill in lordly domes

Some beafts were kill'd, tho' not whole hetacombs; 115
That both extremes were banifh'd from their walls,
Carthufian fafts, and fulfomne Bacchanals:

And all mankind might that juft Mean observe,
In which none e'er could furfeit, none could ftarve.
These as good works, 'tis true, we all allow; 120
But oh thefe works are not in fashion now:
Like rich old wardrobes, things extremely rare,
Extremely fine, but what no man will wear.
Thus much I've faid, I truft, without offence;
Let no Court Sycophant pervert my fenfe,
Nor fly Informer watch thefe words to draw
Within the reach of Treafon, or the Law.

NOTES.

125

was penal, and then very dangerous, to accufe, he had reafon to bespeak the Reader's candor, in the concluding words,

But my words none draws

Within the vaft reach of th' huge ftatutes jawes.

VER. 127. Treason, or the Law.) By the Law is here meant

the Lawyers.

WELL; I may now receive, and die. My fin

Indeed is great, but yet I have been in

A Purgatory, fuch as fear'd hell is

A recreation, and scant map of this.

My mind, neither with pride's itch, nor hath been

Poyfon'd with love to fee or to be seen,

I had no fuit there, nor new fuit to fhow,

Yet went to Court; but as Glare which did go

NOTES.

VER. 1. Well, if it be e.) Donne fays,

Well; I may new receive and die.

which is very indecent language on fo ludicrous an occafion.

VER. 5. I die in charity with fool and knave,) We verily think he did. But of the immediate caufe of his departure hence there is fome fmall difference between his Friends and Enemies. His family fuggefts that a general decay of nature, which had been long coming on, ended with a Dropfy in the breast. The Gentlemen of the Dunciad maintain, that he fell by the keen pen of our redoutable Laureat. We ourselves fhould be inclined to this latter opinion, for the fake of ornamenting his ftory; and that we might be able to fay, that he died, like his immortal namesake, Alexander the Great, by a drug of fo deadly cold a nature, that, as Plutarch and other grave writers tell us, it could