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John Donne (1572–1631). The Poems of John Donne. 1896.

Appendix F. Lines Introductory to Devotions upon Emergent Occasions

SINCE Appendix B was written, Dr. Grosart has kindly called my attention to another poem, to which Donne seems to have some claim. It is the English version of the Latin lines prefixed to his Devotions upon Emergent Occasions. This book was written after his illness in 1623, and first published in 1624. The English version is written on two blank leaves before the title-page of a copy of the third edition of the Devotions (1627), in Dr. Grosart’s possession, and Dr. Grosart is convinced that they are in Donne’s handwriting. I append both the Latin and the English versions.

  • Stationes sine Periodi in Morbo, ad quas referuntur Meditationes sequentes.
  • 1. Insultus morbi primus;
  • 2. Post, actio laesa;
  • 3. Decubitus sequitur tandem;
  • 4. Medicusque vocatur;
  • 5. Solus adest; 6. Metuit;
  • 7. Socios sibi iungitur instat;
  • 8. Et rex ipse suum mittit;
  • 9. Medicamina scribunt;
  • 10. Lente et serpenti satagunt
  • occurrere morbo,
  • 11. Nobilibusque trahunt,
  • a cincto corde, venenum.
  • Succis, et gemmis, et quæ
  • generosa ministrant
  • Ars, et Natura, instillant;
  • 12. Spirante columba
  • Supposita pedibus, reuocantur
  • ad ima vapores;
  • 13. Atque malum genium,
  • numeroso stigmate, fassus,
  • Pellitur ad pectus, morbique
  • suburbia, morbus:
  • 14. Idque notant criticis
  • medici euenisse diebus.
  • 15. Interea insomnes noctes
  • ego duco diesque;
  • 16. Et properare meum clamant
  • e turre propinqua
  • Obstreperae campanae, aliorum
  • in funere, funus.
  • 17. Nunc lento sonitu dicunt,
  • Morieris. 18. At inde,
  • Mortuus es, sonitu celeri,
  • pulsuque agitato.
  • 19. Oceano tandem emenso,
  • aspicienda resurgit
  • Terra; vident iustis medici,
  • iam cocta mederi
  • Se posse iudiciis, 20. Id agunt
  • 21. Atque annuit Ille,
  • Qui per eos clamat, Linquas
  • iam Lazare lectum;
  • 22. Sit morbi fomes tibi
  • cura; 23. Metusque relabi.
  • The Stations or Periods in the Disease to which are Referred the Meditations following.
  • 1. Sickness’ first grudge: 2. Senses
  • and action fall:
  • 3. We take our bed: 4. And the
  • physician call:
  • 5. He comes alone: 6. Fears:
  • 7. Craves more may unite:
  • 8. The king himself sends his:
  • 9. They medicines write:
  • 10. They strive my grief as
  • slowly to oppose,
  • As, slowly and insensibly,
  • it grows.
  • 11. Still’d juices, and consorted
  • pearls; what Art,
  • Or Nature can, are used,
  • to keep the heart
  • From quick infection: 12.
  • By a dying dove
  • The vapours downward to
  • the feet remove—
  • 13. Th’ ingenuous sickness on
  • my spotted breast
  • His kind and his malignity
  • confess’d;
  • 14. This too, the set days
  • Critical discover;
  • 15. Meanwhile I sleepless
  • nights and days pass over;
  • 16. And, from the adjoining tower,
  • the noise of bells
  • For others’ funerals
  • Mine own foretells:
  • 17. Soft gentle tolling, now, says
  • Thou must die;
  • 18. Thou’rt dead, proclaims
  • the ringing out, by and bye.
  • 19. At length the earth out of the
  • sea doth rise,
  • And the physicians, from
  • just grounds, surmise
  • They may with drugs fight
  • the weak enemy;
  • 20. They purge. 21. He prospers
  • who by them doth cry,
  • Now Lazarus, leave thy bed:
  • 22. Wisely take care,
  • Of thy disease’s fuel;
  • 23. Relapse fear.