Dotage
Double Pleasures and Sorrows
The poet contrasts deceptive earthly pleasures and genuine sorrow, then rebukes the folly of preferring earthly grief over the truer joys of heaven.
False, flattering pleasures, casks of happiness, foolish will-o'-the-wisps, women's and children's wishes, hunts woven in tapestry, gilded emptiness, shadows handsomely mounted, dreams at full gallop, embroidered lies, nothing between two dishes— these are the pleasures here.1234 True, earnest sorrows; deep-rooted miseries; anguish ingrained; troubles ripe and full-blown; steadfast griefs; solid calamities—plain proofs, obvious and clear, drawing their evidence even from the bone itself: these are the sorrows here.56 But oh, the folly of deranged men who chase griefs in earnest and joys only in jest—preferring, like brute beasts, a loathsome den to a court, even that bright court above, where there are no sorrows, only delights more true than the miseries here!78
Read the original English
FAlse glozing pleasures, casks of happinesse, Foolish night-fires, womens and childrens wishes, Chases in Arras, guilded emptinesse, Shadows well mounted, dreams in a career, Embroider'd lyes, nothing between two dishes; These are the pleasures here.
True earnest sorrows, rooted miseries, Anguish in grain, vexations ripe and blown, Sure-footed griefs, solid calamities, Plain demonstrations, evident and cleare, Fetching their proofs ev'n from the very bone; These are the sorrows here.
But oh the folly of distracted men, Who griefs in earnest, joyes in jest pursue; Preferring, like brute beasts, a lothsome den Before a court, ev'n that above so cleare, Where are no sorrows, but delights more true, Then miseries are here!
Notes
- 1 ↩Early modern 'glozing' means flattering or specious—smooth talk that coats a false good. Rendered as 'flattering' to keep that deceptive gloss without archaism.
- 2 ↩Herbert's 'foolish night-fires' are ignes fatui (will-o'-the-wisps): delusive lights that lead travelers astray. Modernized to 'will-o'-the-wisps' for sense.
- 3 ↩Arras is tapestry (from the Flemish weaving town). 'Chases in Arras' are hunting scenes worked into wall hangings—pursuit that is only a picture.
- 4 ↩Proverbial image of show without substance: emptiness presented as if it were a covered course between two dishes.
- 5 ↩Early modern 'in grain' means dyed into the fiber—thorough, inherent, deep-dyed—not cereal grain. Rendered as 'dyed in the grain' to keep the textile metaphor.
- 6 ↩'Blown' here is the full-bloom sense (a flower fully blown), not 'blown away': troubles fully mature and fully opened.
- 7 ↩Early modern 'distracted' means frenzied, led astray, or out of one's right mind—not merely inattentive; rendered as 'deranged' to keep that force in contemporary English.
- 8 ↩Source 'Then' is the Early Modern spelling of comparative 'than' (delights more true than miseries are here).
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