Note 1. Absence, hear thou my protestation. On the evidence of an early MS. this poem has been assigned to Donne, which seems well affirmed by the peculiar attributes it possesses of Donne’s genius. It appeared unsigned in Davison’s Poetical Rhapsody, 1602, and later in a collection of verse called The Grove, 1721. “The circumstances,” writes Mr. Quiller-Couch, “of Donne’s life give these verses a peculiar interest. Being secretary to the Lord Chancellor Ellesmere, he ‘passionately fell in love with, and privately married, a niece of the Lady Ellesmere’s, the daughter of Sir George Moor, Chancellor of the Garter, and Lieutenant of the Tower, which so much enraged Sir George, that he not only procured Mr. Donne’s dismission from his employment under the Lord Chancellor, but never rested till he had caused him likewise to be imprisoned. Though it was not long before he was enlarged from his confinement, yet his troubles still increased upon him; for his wife being detained from him, he was constrained to claim her by a troublesome and expensive lawsuit, which, together with travel, books, and a too liberal disposition, contributed to reduce his fortune to a very narrow compass. “‘Adversity has its peculiar virtues to exercise and work upon, as well as the most flourishing condition of life; and Mr. Donne had now an opportunity of showing his patience and submission, which, together with the general approbation he everywhere met with of Mr. Donne’s good qualities, with an irresistible kind of persuasion so won upon Sir George, that he began now not wholly to disapprove of his daughter’s choice; and was at length so far reconciled as not to deny them his blessing.’ The death of his wife broke Donne’s heart.” (The Golden Pomp.) Compare these verses with Carew’s To his Mistress in Absence, Vincent’s ed. Poems of Carew, 1899, p. 29. [back]
