Appendix F. Lines Introductory to Devotions upon Emergent Occasions. John Donne. 1896. The Poems of John Donne

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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.

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