1. This lovely song forms part of Ferrabosco’s Ayres, published in 1609, which contains commendatory verses by Campion and Jonson, who was a close friend. Though of Italian extraction, Ferrabosco was born in England and became Composer-in-ordinary to Charles I.
2. evaporates.
3. darken.
4. unless.
1. Izaak Walton, in The Life of Dr. John Donne, tells us that Donne set this poem (it is called ‘To Christ’ in the manuscript and ‘A hymne to God the Father’ in the printed version) to a solemn tune that used to be sung by the choristers of St Paul’s Cathedral. Donne confided to a friend that the hymn ‘restored to me the same thoughts of joy that possest my Soul in my sickness when I composed it. And, O the power of Church-musick! that Harmony, added to this Hymn has raised the Affections of my heart, and quickened my graces of zeal and gratitude; and I observe, that I always return from paying this publick duty of Prayer and Praise to God, with an inexpressible tranquillity of mind, and a willingness to leave the world.’
2. original sin, into which mankind was born as a consequence of the fall.
3. Each refrain contains two puns: one on his name (Donne/done) and one on his wife’s maiden name Ann (More/more).
4. Cf. the three Fates who spun out the thread of human life.
1. become acquainted with.
2. such affected fashions.
3. cancel, break.
4. that will have none of you.
1. death sentence.
2. but condemned and dragged to execution. Five syllables.
1. the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
2. A metaphor that suggests the fortress of the heart, possessed by Satan, which God must open with a battering-ram.
3. Reason should defend me against Satan, who has usurped my heart.
4. long to be loved.
5. enslave.
6. The poem, chosen by the director Peter Sellars, is introduced – to devastating effect – into the final scene of Doctor Atomic, the opera by John Adams.
1. suffering and tolerance of ‘Idolatry’.
2. insatiably thirsty.
3. prowling at night.
1. Pronounce as four syllables.
2. changeable.
3. Pronounce as four syllables.
4. inexplicably disordered.
5. fever accompanied by sporadic shaking.
1. crucifix.
2. overwhelming, terrifying.
3. to his soul.
1. Donne’s wife, Ann, died on 15 August 1617, aged thirty-three.
2. source.
3. unquenchable thirst.
4. fear.
1. carry.
2. Satan.
3. a magnet.
1. Donne’s own attitude to death is clearly documented. He wrote a treatise on suicide called Biathanatos, in which he claimed that Jesus committed suicide. As for his own feelings, he wrote to a friend: ‘I would not that death should take me asleep. I would not have him merely seize me, and only declare me to be dead, but win me, and overcome me.’ As death approached, Donne got dressed in his shroud to have his portrait taken. Izaak Walton, his first biographer, describes his last moments: ‘[…] he was so happy to have nothing to do but to dye […] As […] his last breath departed from him, he closed his own eyes; and then disposed his hands and body into such a posture as required not the least alteration by those that came to shroud him.’
1. Written for Peter Pears, who comments in the sleeve note that accompanies his Argo recording: ‘Whereas the medievals for the most part dispensed with any harmonic implications, here the composer has suggested a strong harmonic skeleton behind the solo voice, to fine effect: in the last section the use of different registers of the voice vividly underlines Donne’s wonderful text.’ Priaulx Rainier’s Cycle for Declamation was sung at her memorial service.
1. ‘Now with slow sound (tolling) they say, you will die.’