Re: DONNE / BASSE
art
Elizabeth wrote:
<<The Cambridge University Press website posted
an abstract for an article which proves,
apparently, that John Donne wrote
WILLM. BASSE's elegy to Shakespeare.
.
Shakespeare Survey Volume 59:
Editing Shakespeare Who Wrote William Basse's 'Elegy on Shakespeare'?:
Rediscovering a Poem Lost from the Donne Canon, Brandon S. Centerwall
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On Mr William Shakespeare / who dyed in Aprill 1616.
Renowned Spenser, lye a thought more nyeRAIS
To learned Chaucer, and rare Beaumont lye
A little neerer Spencer, to make roome
For Shakespeare in your threefold fowerfold tombe.
To lodge all fower in one bedd make a shift
Untill Doomesday; for hardly will a fift
Betwixt this day and that, by fate be slaine
For whome your Curtaines may be drawne againe.
If your precedency in Death doth barr
A fourth place in your sacred Sepulchre
Under this carved marble of thyne owne
Sleep rare Tragædian, Shakespeare sleep alone
Thy unmolested Peace, unshared Cave
Possesse as Lord, not Tennant of thy grave.
That unto us and others it may bee
Honor heereafter to be laid by Thee.
- Mr WILLM. BASSE
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__ *WILLM BASSE*
__ *IAMBS SWELL*
__ *LEWIS LAMBS*
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______*DONNE*
______*BASSE*
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. Hamlet (Quarto 2, 1604-5) Act 4, Scene 1
Ger. To draw apart the body he hath kild,
. Ore whom, his VERy madnes like some ore
. Among a minerall of mettals *BASE* ,
. Showes it selfe pure, a weepes for what is *DONE* .
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. Titus Andronicus (Quarto 1, 1594) Act 5, Scene 3
.
Aron. Ah why should wrath be mute and furie dumb,
. I am no babie I, that with *BASE* prayers
. I should repent the euils I haue *DONE* ,
. Ten thousand WORSE than EUER yet I did
. VVould I performe if I might haue my WILL,
. If one good deed in all my life I did
. I doe repent it from my VERiE soule.
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The Rape of Lucrece Stanza 96
'So let thy thoughts, low vassals to thy state'--
.No more,' quoth he; 'by heaven, I will not hear thee:
.Yield to my love; if not, enforced hate,
.Instead of love's coy touch, shall rudely tear thee;
.That *DONE* , despitefully I mean to bear thee
.Unto the *BASE* bed of some rascal groom,
.To be thy partner in this shameful doom.'
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. The Complete Angler (1653)
Part I THE THIRD DAY. CHAPTER V.
MORE DIRECTIONS HOW TO FISH FOR, AND HOW TO MAKE FOR THE TROUT AN
ARTIFICIAL MINNOW AND FLIES, WITH SOME MERRIMENT.
Cor. I will sing a song, if anybody will sing another: else to be
plain with you, I will sing none: I am none of those that sing for for
meat--but for company: I say, " 'Tis merry in hall, when men sing
all."
Pisc. I'll promise you I'll sing a song that was lately made, at my
request, by *Mr. WILLIAM BASSE* ; one that hath made the choice songs
of the "Hunter in his career," and of "Tom of Bedlam," and many
others of note; and this that I will sing is in *pRAISE* of angling.
Cor. And then mine shall be the *pRAISE* of a countryman's life: what
will the rest sing of?
Peter. I will promise you, I will sing another song in *pRAISE* of
angling to-morrow night; for we will not part till then---but fish to-
morrow, and sup together: and the next day EVERy man leav0e fishing,
and fall to his business.
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POEMS OF JOHN DONNE (1633)
http://tinyurl.com/yzq59dk
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LETTERS. 27
In recompense I would show future times
What you were, and teach them to urge towards such.
VERsE embalms virtue, and tombs or thrones of rhymes
PresERVE frail transitory FAME as much
As spice doth bodies from corrupt airs' touch.
Mine are short-lived ; the tincture of your name
Creates in them, but dissipates as fast,
New spirit ; ^ for strong agents with the same
Force that doth warm and cherish us, do *WASTE* ;
Kept *HOT* with strong extracts no bodies last.
So my verse, built of your just **pRAISE** , might want
Reason and likelihood, the firmest *BASE*,
And, made of miracle, now faith is *SCANT*,
"Will vanish soon and so possess no place ;
And you and it too much grace might disgrace.
"When all (as *TRUTH* commands assent) confess
All *TRUTH* of you, yet they will doubt how I,
One corn of one low ant-hill's *DUST*, and LESS,
Should name, know, or express a thing so high,
And not an inch, measure infinity.
I cannot tell them nor myself nor you,
But leave, lest *TRUTH* be endangered by my *pRAISE*,
And turn to God who knows I tliink this *TRUE*.
And useth oft, when such a heart missays.
To make it good; for such a prayer prays.
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FUNERAL ELEGIES. 109
Whom they would have so honoured,) and that this
On such opinions and capacities
Is built as *RISE* and fall to more and LESS,
Alas ! 't is but a casual HAPPINESS.
Hath EVER any man to himself assigned
This or that HAPPINESS to arrest his mind,
But that another man, which takes a *WORSE*,
Thinks him a fool for having ta'en that course
They who did labour Babel's tower to erect
Might have considered that for that effect
All this whole solid earth could not allow
Nor furnish FORTH materials enow,
And that his centre, to RAISE such a place,
"Was far too little to have been the *BASE* ;
No more affords this world foundation
To erect *TRUE* joy, were all the means in one.
But as the heathen made them sEVERal gods
Of aU God's benefits and all his rods,
(For as the wine and corn and onions are
Gods unto them, so agues be, and war,)
And as by changing that whole precious gold
To such small copper coins, they lost the old.
And lost their only God, who EVER must
Be sought alone, and not in such a thrust.
So much mankind *TRUE HAPPINESS* mistakes ;
No joy enjoys that man that many makes.
Then, soul, to thy first pitch work up again ;
Know that all lines which circles do contain.
For once that they the centre touch, do touch
Twice the circumference, and be thou such ;
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ELEGIES UPON THE AUTHOR. 211
Unto thy HEaRsE what we can nEVER pay,
Than with *emBASEd* coin those RITES defray.
Commit we then thee to thyself : nor blame
Our drooping loves, Avhicli thus to thy own FAME
Leave thee executor ; since, but thine own,
No pen could do thee justice, nor bays crown
Thy vast desert ; save that, we nothing can
Depute to be thy ashes' guardian.
So jewelers no art or metal trust
To form the diamond, but the diamond's *DUST*.
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Art Neuendorffer