CANON.

The Infanta of London;

and only two,Qand theDyce MS.which is its duplicate, the tempting and, I think, correct reading inSatyre IV, l. 38, p.160:

He speaks no language.

Lastly, there are poems for which1633is not available. The authenticity of these will be discussed later. Their text is generally very corrupt, especially of those added in1650and1669. Here the manuscripts help us enormously. With their aid I have been able to give an infinitely more readable text of the fineElegie XII, 'Since she must go'; the brilliant though not very edifyingElegies XVII,XVIII, andXIX; as well as of most of the poems in the Appendixes. The work of correcting some of these had been begun by Dr. Grosart and Mr. Chambers, but much was still left to do by a wider collation. Dr. Grosart was content with one or two generally inferior manuscripts, and Mr. Chambers mentions manuscripts which time or other reasons did not allow him to examine, or he could not have been content to leave the text of these poems as it stands in his edition.

One warning which must be borne in mind when making a comparison of alternative readings has been given by Mr. Chambers, and my examination of the manuscripts bears it out: 'In all probability most of Donne's poems existed in several more or less revised forms, and it was sometimes a matter of chance which form was used for printing a particular edition.' The examination of a large number of manuscripts has shown that it is not probable, but certain, that of somepoems (e.g.The Flea,A Lecture upon the Shadow,The Good-Morrow,Elegie XI. The Bracelet) more than one distinct version was in circulation. Of theSatyres, too, many of the variants represent, I can well believe, different versions of the poems circulated by the poet among his friends. And the same may possibly be true of variants in other poems. Our analysis of1633has shown us what versions were followed by that edition. What happened in later editions was frequently that the readings of two different versions were combined eclectically. In the present edition, when it is clear that there were two versions, my effort has been to retain one tradition pure, recording the variants in the notes, even when in individual cases the reading of the text adopted seemed to me inferior to its rival, provided it was not demonstrably wrong.

In view of what has been said, the aim of the present edition may be thus briefly stated:

(1) To restore the text of1633in all cases where modern editors have abandoned or disguised it, if there is no evidence, internal or external, to prove its error or inferiority; and to show, in the textual notes, how far it has the general support of the manuscripts.

(2) To correct1633when the meaning and the evidence of the manuscripts point to its error and suggest an indubitable or highly probable emendation.

(3) To correct throughout, and more drastically, by help of the manuscripts when such exist, the often carelessly and erroneously printed text of those poems which were added in1635,1649,1650, and1669.

(4) By means of the commentary to vindicate or defend my choice of reading, and to elucidate Donne's thought by reference to his other works and (but this I have been able to do only very partially) to his scholastic and other sources.

As regards punctuation, it was my intention from the outset to preserve the original, altering it only (a) when, judged by its own standards, it was to my mind wrong—stops were displaced or dropped, or the editor had misunderstood the poet; (b) when even though defensible the punctuation was misleading,tested frequently by the fact that it had misled editors. In doing this I frequently made unnecessary changes because it was only by degrees that I came to understand all the subtleties of older punctuation and to appreciate some of its nuances. A good deal of my work in the final revision has consisted in restoring the original punctuation. In doing this I have been much assisted by the study of Mr. Percy Simpson's work onShakespearian Punctuation. My punctuation will not probably in the end quite satisfy either the Elizabethan purist, or the critic who would have preferred a modernized text. I will state the principles which have guided me.

I do not agree with Mr. Chambers that the punctuation, at any rate of1633, is 'exceptionally chaotic'. It is sometimes wrong, and in certain poems, as theSatyres, it is careless. But as a rule it is excellent on its own principles. Donne, indeed, was exceptionally fastidious about punctuation and such typographical details as capital letters, italics, brackets, &c. TheLXXX Sermonsof 1640 are a model of fine rhetorical and rhythmical pointing, pointing which inserted stops to show you where to stop. The sermons were not printed in his lifetime, but we know that he wrote them out for the press, hoping that they might be a source of income to his son.

But Donne did not prepare his poems for the press. Their punctuation is that of the manuscript from which they were taken, revised by the editor or printer. One can often recognize inDthe source of a stop in1633, or can see what the pointing and use of capitals would have been had Donne himself supervised the printing. The printer's man was sometimes careless; the printer or editor had prejudices of his own in certain things; and Donne is a difficult and subtle poet. All these circumstances led to occasional error.

The printer's prejudice was one which Donne shared, but not, I think, to quite the same extent. Compared, for example, with theAnniversaries(printed in Donne's lifetime)1633shows a fondness for the semicolon,45not only within the sentence,but separating sentences, instead of a full stop, when these are closely related in thought to one another. In an argumentative and rhetorical poet like Donne the result is excellent, once one grows accustomed to it, as is the use of commas, where we should use semicolons, within the sentence, dividing co-ordinate clauses from one another. On the other hand this use of semicolons leads to occasional ambiguity when one which separates two sentences comes into close contact with another within the sentence. For example, inSatyre III, ll. 69-72, how should an editor, modernizing the punctuation, deal with the semicolons in ll. 70 and 71? Should he print thus?—

But unmoved thouOf force must one, and forc'd but one allow;And the right. Ask thy father which is shee;Let him ask his.

But unmoved thou

Of force must one, and forc'd but one allow;

And the right. Ask thy father which is shee;

Let him ask his.

With trifling differences that is how Chambers and the Grolier Club editor print them. But the lines might run, to my mind preferably—

But unmoved thouOf force must one, and forc'd but one allow.And the right; ask thy father which is shee,Let him ask his.

But unmoved thou

Of force must one, and forc'd but one allow.

And the right; ask thy father which is shee,

Let him ask his.

'And the right' being taken as equivalent to 'And as to the right'. One might even print—

And the right? Ask, &c.

One of the semicolons is equivalent to a little more than a comma, the other to a little less than a full stop.

Another effect of this finely-shaded punctuation is that the question is constantly forced upon an editor, is it correct? Has the printer understood the subtler connexion of Donne's thought, or has he placed the semicolon where the full stop should be, the comma where the semicolon? My solution of these difficulties has been to face and try to overcome them. I have corrected the punctuation where it seemed to me, on its own principles, definitely wrong; and I have, but more sparingly, amended the pointing where it seemed to me to disguisethe subtler connexions of Donne's thought or to disturb the rhetoric and rhythm of his verse paragraphs. In doing so I have occasionally taken a hint from the manuscripts, especiallyDandW, which, by the kindness of Mr. Gosse and Professor Dowden, I have had by me while revising the text. But if I occasionally quote these manuscripts in support of my punctuation, it is only with a view to showing that I have not departed from the principles of Elizabethan pointing. I do not quote them as authoritative. On questions of punctuation none of the extant manuscripts could be appealed to as authorities. Their punctuation is often erratic and chaotic, when it is not omitted altogether. Finally, I have recorded every change that I have made. A reader should be able to gather from the text and notes combined exactly what was the text of the first edition of each poem, whether it appeared in1633or a subsequent edition, in every particular, whether of word, spelling, or punctuation. My treatment of the last will not, as I have said, satisfy every reader. I can only say that I have given to the punctuation of each poem as much time and thought as to any part of the work. In the case of Donne this is justifiable. I am not sure that it would be in the case of a simpler, a less intellectual poet. It would be an easier task either to retain the old punctuation and leave a reader to correct for himself, or to modernize. With all its refinements, Elizabethan punctuation erred by excess. A reader who gives thought and sympathy to a poem does not need all these commands to pause, and they frequently irritate and mislead.

1Englands Parnassus; or The Choysest Flowers of our Moderne Poets: with their Poetical Comparisons. Descriptions of Bewties, Personages, Castles, Pallaces, Mountaines, Groves, Seas, Springs, Rivers etc. Whereunto are annexed Other Various Discourses both Pleasaunt and Profitable. Imprinted at London, For N. L. C. B. And T. H.1600.

2A Poetical Rhapsody Containing, Diuerse Sonnets, Odes, Elegies, Madrigalls, and other Poesies, both in Rime and Measured Verse. Never yet published.&c. 1602. The work was republished in 1608, 1611, and 1621. It was reprinted by Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges in 1814, by Sir Harris Nicolas in 1826, and by A. H. Bullen in 1890.

Englands Helicon, printed in 1600, is a collection of songs almost without exception in pastoral guise. TheEclogueintroducing the SomersetEpithalamionis Donne's only experiment in this favourite convention. Donne's friend Christopher Brooke contributed anEpithalamionto this collection, but not until 1614. It is remarkable that Donne's poemThe Baitedid not find its way intoEnglands Heliconwhich contains Marlowe's song and two variants on the theme. In 1600 Eleazar Edgar obtained a licence to publishAmours by J. D. with Certen Oyr.(i.e. other)sonnetes by W. S.Were Donne and Shakespeare to have appeared together? The volume does not seem to have been issued.

3e.g. Among Drummond of Hawthornden's miscellaneous papers; in Harleian MS. 3991; in a manuscript in Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

4So on the first page, and the opening sentences of the letter defend the use of the word 'Understanders'. Nevertheless the second and third pages have the heading, running across from one to the other, 'The Printer to the Reader.'

5'Will: Marshall sculpsit' implies that Marshall executed the plate from which the whole frontispiece is taken, including portrait and poem, not that he is responsible for the portrait itself. To judge from its shape the latter would seem to have been made originally from a medallion. Marshall, theDictionary of National Biographysays, 'floruit c. 1630,' so could have hardly executed a portrait of Donne in 1591. Mr. Laurence Binyon, of the Print Department of the British Museum, thinks that the original may have been by Nicholas Hilyard (see II. p.134) whom Donne commends inThe Storme. The Spanish motto suggests that Donne had already travelled.

The portrait does not form part of the preliminary matter, which consists of twelve pages exclusive of the portrait. It was an insertion and is not found in all the extant copies. The paper on which it is printed is a trifle smaller than the rest of the book.

6One or two copies seem to have got into circulation without theErrata. One such, identical in other respects with the ordinary issue, is preserved in the library of Mr. Beverley Chew, New York. I am indebted for this information to Mr. Geoffrey Keynes, of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, who is preparing a detailed bibliography of Donne's works.

7Some such arrangement may have been intended by Donne himself when he contemplated issuing his poems in 1614, for he speaks, in a letter to Sir Henry Goodyere (see II. pp.144-5), of including a letter in verse to the Countess of Bedford 'amongst the rest to persons of that rank'. The manuscripts, especially the later and more ambitious, e.g.StephensandO'Flaherty, show similar groupings; and in1633, though there is no consistent sequence, the poems fall into irregularly recurring groups. The order of the poems within each of these groups in1633is generally retained in1635. In the1633arrangement there were occasional errors in the placing of individual poems, especiallyElegies, owing to the use of that name both for love poems and for funeral elegies or epicedes. These were sometimes corrected in later editions.

Modern editors have dealt rather arbitrarily and variously with the old classification. Grosart shifted the poems about according to his own whims in a quite inexplicable fashion. The Grolier Club edition preserves the groups and their original order (except that theEpigramsandProgresse of the Soulefollow theSatyres), but corrects some of the errors in placing, and assigns to their relevant groups the poems added in1650. Chambers makes similar corrections and replacings, but he further rearranges the groups. In his first volume he brings together—possibly because of their special interest—theSongs and Sonets,Epithalamions,Elegies, andDivine Poems, keeping for his second volume theLetters to Severall Personages,Funerall Elegies,Progresse of the Soul,Satyres, andEpigrams. There is this to be said for the old arrangement, that it does, as Walton indicated, correspond generally to the order in which the poems were written, to the succession of mood and experience in Donne's life. In the present edition this original order has been preserved with these modifications: (1) In theSongs and Sonets,The Fleahas been restored to the place which it occupied in1633; (2) the rearrangement of the misplacedElegiesby modern editors has been accepted; (3) their distribution of the few poems added in1650(in two sheets bound up with the body of the work) has also been accepted, but I have placed the poemOn Mr. Thomas Coryats Cruditiesafter theSatyres; (4) two new groups have been inserted,Heroical EpistlesandEpitaphs. It was absurd to classSappho to Philaeniswith theLetters to Severall Personages. At the same time it is not exactly anElegy. There is a slight difference again between theFunerall Elegyand theEpitaph, though the latter term is sometimes loosely used. Ben Jonson speaks of Donne'sEpitaph on Prince Henry. (5) TheLetter, to E. of D. with six holy Sonnetshas been placed before theDivine Poems. (6) TheHymne to the Saints, and to Marquesse Hamyltonhas been transferred to theEpicedes. (7) Some poems have been assigned to an Appendix as doubtful.

8The edition of 1633 contained one Latin, and seven English, letters to Sir Henry Goodyere, with one letter to the Countess of Bedford, a copy of which had been sent to Goodyere. To these were added in1635a letter in Latin verse,De libro cum mutuaretur(see p.397), and four prose letters in English, oneTo the La. G.written fromAmyensin February, 1611-2, and threeTo my honour'd friend G. G. Esquier, the first dated April 14, 1612, the two last November 2, 1630, and January 7, 1630.

9In the copy of the 1633 edition belonging to the Library of Christ Church, Oxford, which has been used for the present edition, and bears the name 'Garrard att his quarters in ϑermyte' (perhapsDonne's friend George Garrard or Gerrard: see Gosse:Life and Letters &c.i. 285), are some lines, signed J. V., which seem to imply that the writer had some hand in the publication of the poems; but the reference may be simply to his gift:

An early offer of him to yorsightWas the best way to doe the Author rightMy thoughts could fall on; wchhis soule wchknewThe weight of a iust Prayse will think't a true.Our commendation is suspected, whenWee Elegyes compose on sleeping men,The Manners of the Age prevayling soThat not our conscience wee, but witts doe show.And 'tis an often gladnes, that men dyeOf unmatch'd names to write more easyly.Such my religion is of him; I holdIt iniury to have his merrit tould;Who (like the Sunn) is righted best when weeDoe not dispute but shew his quality.Since all the speech of light is less than it.An eye to that is still the best of witt.And nothing can express, for truth or hasteSo happily, a sweetnes as our taste.Wchthought at once instructed me in thisSafe way to prayse him, and yorhands to kisse.Affectionately yrsJ. V.tu longe sequere et vestigiasemper adoraVaughani

An early offer of him to yorsight

Was the best way to doe the Author right

My thoughts could fall on; wchhis soule wchknew

The weight of a iust Prayse will think't a true.

Our commendation is suspected, when

Wee Elegyes compose on sleeping men,

The Manners of the Age prevayling so

That not our conscience wee, but witts doe show.

And 'tis an often gladnes, that men dye

Of unmatch'd names to write more easyly.

Such my religion is of him; I hold

It iniury to have his merrit tould;

Who (like the Sunn) is righted best when wee

Doe not dispute but shew his quality.

Since all the speech of light is less than it.

An eye to that is still the best of witt.

And nothing can express, for truth or haste

So happily, a sweetnes as our taste.

Wchthought at once instructed me in this

Safe way to prayse him, and yorhands to kisse.

Affectionately yrsJ. V.tu longe sequere et vestigiasemper adoraVaughani

Affectionately yrs

J. V.

tu longe sequere et vestigia

semper adora

Vaughani

The name at the foot of the Latin line, scribbled at the bottom of the page, seems to identify J. V. with a Vaughan, probably John Vaughan (1603-74) who was a Christ Church man. In 1630 (D.N.B.) he was a barrister at the Inner Temple, and a friend of Selden. He took an active part in politics later, and in 1668 was created Sir John Vaughan and appointed Chief Justice of the Common Pleas.

10I am inclined to believe that Henry King, the poet, and later Bishop of Chichester, assisted the printer. The 1633 edition bears more evidence of competent editing by one who knew and understood Donne's poems than any later edition. See p. 255.

11Professor Norton (Grolier Club edition, i, p. xxxviii) states that theEpistle Dedicatoryand theEpigramby Jonson are omitted in this edition. This is an error, perhaps due to the two pages having been torn out of or omitted in the copy he consulted. They are in the Christ Church, Oxford, copy which I have used.

12In 1779 Donne's poems were included in Bell'sPoets of Great Britain. The poems were grouped in an eccentric fashion and the text is a reprint of1719. In 1793 Donne's poems were reissued in aComplete Edition of the Poets of Great Britain, published by Arthur Arch, London, and Bell and Bradfute, Edinburgh, under the editorship of Robert Anderson. The text and arrangement of the poems show that this is a reprint of Bell's edition. The same is true of the text, so far as I have checked it, in Chalmers'sEnglish Poets, vol. v, 1810. But in the arrangement of the poems the editor has recurred to the edition of 1669, and has reprinted some poems from that source. Southey printed selections from Donne's poems in hisSelect Works of the British Poets from Chaucer to Jonson(1831). The text is that of1669. In 1839 Dean Alford included some of Donne's poems in his very incomplete edition of theWorks of Donne. He printed these from a copy of the 1633 edition.

There were two American editions of the poems before the Grolier Club edition. Donne's poems were included inThe Works of the British Poets with Lives of their Authors, by Ezekiel Sanford, Philadelphia, 1819. The text is based on the edition of 1719. A complete and separate edition was published at Boston in 1850. This has an eclectic text, but the editor has relied principally on the editions after1633. Variants are sparingly and somewhat inaccurately recorded.

In 1802 F. G. Waldron printed in hisShakespeare Miscellany'Two Elegies of Dr. Donne not in any edition of his Works'. Of these, one, 'Loves War,' is by Donne. The other, 'Is Death so great a gamster,' is by Lord Herbert of Cherbury. In 1856-7 Sir John Simeon printed in theMiscellaniesof the Philobiblon Society several 'Unpublished Poems of Donne'. Very few of them are at all probably poems of Donne.

Of Grosart's edition (1873), the Grolier Club edition (1895), and Chambers's edition (1896), a full account will be given later.

13Huyghens sent some translations with the letter. He translated into Dutch (retaining the original metres, except that Alexandrines are substituted for decasyllabics) nineteen pieces in all. An examination of these shows that the text he used was a manuscript one, the readings he translates being in more than one instance those of the manuscript, as opposed to the printed, tradition. In a note which he prefixed to the translations when he published them many years later in hisKorenbloemen(1672) he states that Charles I, having heard of his intention to translate Dr. Donne, 'declared he did not believe that anyone could acquit himself of that task with credit'—an interesting testimony to the admiration which Charles felt for the poetry of Donne. A copy of the 1633 edition now in the British Museum is said to have belonged to the King, and to bear the marks of his interest in particular passages. Huyghens's comment on Charles's criticism shows what it was in the English language which most struck a foreigner speaking a tongue of a purer Germanic strain: 'I feel sure that he would not have passed so absolute a sentence had he known the richness of our language, a moderate command of which is sufficient to enable one to render the thoughts of peoples of all countries with ease and delight. From these I must, however, except the English; for their language is all languages; and as it pleases them, Greek and Latin become plain English. But sincewedo not thus admit foreign words it is easy to understand in what difficulty we find ourselves when we have to express in a pure German speech,Ecstasis,Atomi,Influentiae,Legatum,Alloy, and the like. Set these aside and the rest costs us no great effort.'

At the end of his life Huyghens wrote a poem of reminiscences,Sermones de Vita Propria, in which he recalls the impression that Donne had left upon his mind:

Voortreffelyk Donn, o deugdzaam leeraer, duldDat ik u bovenal, daar'k u bij voorkeur noeme,Als godlijk Dichter en welsprekend Reednaer roeme,Uit uwen gulden mond, 'tzij ge in een vriendenzaalOf van den kansel spraakt, klonk louter godentaal,Wier nektar ik zoo vaak met harte wellust proefde.

Voortreffelyk Donn, o deugdzaam leeraer, duld

Dat ik u bovenal, daar'k u bij voorkeur noeme,

Als godlijk Dichter en welsprekend Reednaer roeme,

Uit uwen gulden mond, 'tzij ge in een vriendenzaal

Of van den kansel spraakt, klonk louter godentaal,

Wier nektar ik zoo vaak met harte wellust proefde.

'Suffer me, all-surpassing Donne, virtuous teacher, to name you first and above all; and sing your fame as god-like poet and eloquent preacher. From your golden mouth, whether in the chamber of a friend, or in the pulpit, fell the speech of Gods, whose nectar I drank again and again with heartfelt joy.'

Vondel did not share the enthusiasm of Huyghens and Hooft.

14That is, many poems of his early years.

15Tot verschiedene reizen meen ik U. E. onderhouden te hebben met de gedachtenisse van Doctor Donne, tegenwoordigh Deken van St Pauls tot Londen, ende, door dit rijckelick beroep, volgens 't Engelsch gebruyck, in hooghen ansien, in veel hooger door den rijckdom van sijn gadeloos vernuft ende noch onvergelijckerer welsprekentheit op stoel. Eertijts ten dienst van de grooten ten hove gevoedt, in de werelt gewortelt, in de studien geslepen, in de dictkonst vermaerdt, meer als yemand. Van die groene tacken hebben veel weelderige vruchten onder de liefhebbers leggen meucken, diese nu bynaer verrot van ouderdom uytdeylen, my synde voor den besten slag van mispelen ter hand geraeckt by halve vijf en twintig, door toedoen van eenighe mijne besondere Heeren ende vrienden van die natie. Onder de onze hebb ick geene konnen uytkiesen, diese voor U. E. behoorden medegedeelt te werden, slaende deze dichter ganschelijck op U. E. manieren van invall ende uitspraeck.

16This is not the only manuscript in which this poem appears among theElegiesfollowing immediately on that entitledThe Picture, 'Here take my picture, though I bid farewell.' It is thus placed in1633. The adhesion of two poems in a number of otherwise distinct manuscripts may mean, I think, that they were written about the same time.

17There are, however, grounds for the conjecture besides the contents. The Westmoreland MS. was secured, Mr. Gosse writes me, when the library of the Earls of Westmoreland was disposed of, about the year 1892. 'The interest of this library was that it had not been disturbed since the early part of the seventeenth century. With the Westmoreland MS. of Donne's Poems was attached a very fine copy of Donne'sPseudomartyr, which contained, in what was certainly Donne's handwriting, the words "Ex dono authoris: Row: Woodward" and a motto in Spanish "De juegos el mejor es con la hoja". There can be no doubt, I think, that these two books belonged to Rowland Woodward and were given him by Donne.' But is it likely that after 1617 Donne would give even to a friend a manuscript containing the most reprehensible of his earlierElegiesand theEpithalamion made at Lincolns Inn? It seems to me more probable that the manuscript contains two distinct collections, made at different times. The one is a transcript from an early collection, quite probably Woodward's, containing Satires, Elegies, and one Epithalamion. To this the Divine Poems have been added.

18With the grouping of1635I have adopted generally its order within the groups, but the reader will see quite easily what is the order of theSongsin1633and inD,H49,Lec, if he will turn to the Contents and, beginning atThe Message(p.43), will follow down toA Valediction: forbidding mourning(p.49). He must then turn back to the beginning and follow the list down till he comes toThe Curse(p.41), and then resume atThe Extasie(p.51). If the seven poems,The MessagetoA Valediction:forbidding mourning, were brought to the beginning, the order of theSongs and Sonetsin1635-69would be the same as in1633.

The editor of1633began a process, which was carried on in1635, of naming poems unnamed in the manuscripts, and re-naming some that already had titles. The textual notes will give full details regarding the names, and will show that frequently a poem unnamed inD,H49,Lecremains unnamed in1633.

19There is one exception to this which I had overlooked. InD,H49,Lec,The Undertaking(p. 10) comes later, followingThe Extasie.

20When in 1614 Donne contemplated an edition of his poems he wrote to Goodyere: 'By this occasion I am made a Rhapsoder of mine own rags, and that cost me more diligence to seek them, than it did to make them. This made me aske to borrow that old book of you,' &c.Letters(1651), p. 197.

21Five are to the Countess of Bedford—'Reason is', 'Honour is', 'You have refin'd', 'To have written then', and 'This Twy-light'. One is to the Countess of Huntingdon, 'Man to Gods image'; one to the Countess of Salisbury, 'Fair, great and good'; and one to Lady Carey, 'Here where by all.'

22In citing this collection I useTCfor the two groupsTCC,TCD.

23Additional lines to theAnnuntiation and Passion, 'The greatest and the most conceald impostor', 'Now why should Love a footeboys place despise', 'Believe not him whom love hath made so wise', 'Pure link of bodies where no lust controules', 'Whoso terms love a fire',Upon his scornefull Mistresse('Cruel, since that thou dost not fear the curse'),The Hower Glass('Doe but consider this small Dust'), 'If I freely may discover',Song('Now you have kill'd me with your scorn'), 'Absence, heare thou my protestation',Song('Love bred of glances'), 'Love if a god thou art', 'Greate Lord of Love how busy still thou art', 'To sue for all thy Love and thy whole hart'.

24'Believe not him whom love hath made so wise',On the death of Mris Boulstred('Stay view this stone'),Against Absence('Absence, heare thou my protestation'), 'Thou send'st me prose and rhyme',Tempore Hen: 3('The state of Fraunce, as now it stands'),A fragment('Now why shuld love a Footboyes place despise'),To J. D. from Mr. H. W.('Worthie Sir, Tis not a coate of gray,' see II. p.141), 'Love bred of glances twixt amorous eyes',To a Watch restored to its mystres('Goe and count her better houres'), 'Deare Love continue nyce and chast', 'Cruell, since thou doest not feare the curse',On the blessed virgin Marie('In that, ô Queene of Queenes').

25Of 128 items in the volume 99 are by Donne, and I have excluded some that might be claimed for him. The poems certainly not by Donne are 'Wrong not deare Empresse of my heart', 'Good folkes for gold or hire', 'Love bred of glances twixt amorous eyes', 'Worthy Sir, Tis not a coat of gray' (here marked 'J. D'.), 'Censure not sharply then' (marked 'B. J.'), 'Whosoever seeks my love to know', 'Thou sendst me prose and rimes' (see II. p.166), 'An English lad long wooed a lasse of Wales', 'Marcella now grown old hath broke her glasse', 'Pretus of late had office borne in London',To his mistresse('O love whose power and might'),Her answer('Your letter I receaved'),The Mar: B. to the Lady Fe. Her.('Victorious beauty though your eyes')—a poem generally attributed to the Earl of Pembroke,A poem('Absence heare my protestation'), 'True love findes witt but hee whom witt doth move', Earle of Pembroke 'If her disdain', Ben Ruddier 'Till love breeds love', 'Good madam Fowler doe not truble mee', 'Oh faithlesse world; and the most faithlesse part, A womans hart', 'As unthrifts greeve in straw for their pawn'd beds' (marked 'J. D.'), 'Why shuld not pilgrimes to thy body come' (marked 'F. B.'),On Mrs. Bulstreed, 'Mee thinkes death like one laughing lies', 'When this fly liv'd shee us'd to play' (marked 'Cary'),The Epitaph('Underneath this sable hearse'), a couple of long heroical epistles (with notes appended) entitledSir Philip Sidney to the Lady Penelope RichandThe Lady Penelope Rich to Sir Philipe Sidney. The latter epistle after some lines gives way quite abruptly to a different poem, a fragment of an elegy, which I have printed in Appendix C, p.462.

26The exceptions are one poor epigram:

Oh silly John surprised with joyFor Joy hath made thee sillyJoy to enjoy thy sweetest JoneJone whiter than the Lillie;

Oh silly John surprised with joy

For Joy hath made thee silly

Joy to enjoy thy sweetest Jone

Jone whiter than the Lillie;

and two elegies, generally assigned to F. Beaumont, 'I may forget to eate' and 'As unthrifts greive in straw'.

27The note may point to some connexion of the MS. with the Harington family. The MS. contains an unusually large number of poems addressed to the Countess of Bedford, and ascribes, quite probably, the Elegy 'Death be not proud' to the Countess herself.

28The poems not by Donne areA Satire: To Sr Nicholas Smith, 1602 ('Sleep next society'); Sir Thomas Overbury's 'Each woman is a Breefe of Womankind' and his epitaph 'The spann of my daies measurd, here I rest'; a poem headedBash, beginning 'I know not how it comes to pass';Verses upon Bishop Fletcher who married a woman of France('If any aske what Tarquin ment to marrie');Fletcher Bishop of London('It was a question in Harroldrie'); 'Mistres Aturney scorning long to brooke'; 'Wonder of Beautie, Goddesse of my sence'; 'Faire eyes doe not thinke scorne to read of Love'; two sonnets apparently by Sir Thomas Roe; six consecutive poems by Sir John Roe (see pp.401-6,408-10); 'Absence heare thou,';To the Countess of Rutland('Oh may my verses pleasing be');To Sicknesse('Whie disease dost thou molest'); 'A Taylor thought a man of upright dealing'; 'Unto that sparkling wit, that spirit of fier'; 'There hath beene one that strove gainst natures power.'

29Satyra Sexta('Sleepe next Society'),Elegia Undecima('True Love findes wit'),Elegia Vicesima('Behold a wonder': see Grosart ii. 249),Elegia Vicesima Secunda('As unthrifts mourne'),Elegia vicesima septima('Deare Tom: Tell her'),To Mr. Ben: Jonson9oNovembris 1603('If great men wronge me'),To Mr. Ben: Jonson('The state and mens affairs'), 'Deare Love, continue nice and chaste', 'Wherefore peepst thou envious Daye', 'Great and good, if she deride me',To the Blessed Virgin Marie('In that ô Queene of Queenes'), 'What if I come to my Mistresse bed', 'Thou sentst to me a heart as sound', 'Believe your glasse',A Paradox of a Painted Face('Not kisse! By Jove I will').

30The poems not by Donne are not numerous, but they are assigned to him without hesitation. They are 'As unthrifts grieve in straw', 'Thou sentst me Prose', 'Dear Love continue', 'Madam that flea',The Houre Glass('Doe but consider this small dust'),A Paradox of a Painted Face('Not kiss, by Jove'), 'If I freely may discover', 'Absence heare thou', 'Love bred of glances'.

31Note the readings I. 58 'The Infanta of London', IV. 38 'He speaks no language'.

32The other poems here ascribed to J. D. areTo my Lo: of Denbrook(sic., i.e. Pembroke), 'Fye, Fye, you sonnes of Pallas',A letter written by Sr H. G. and J. D. alternis vicibus('Since every tree'), 'Why shuld not Pillgryms to thy bodie come', 'O frutefull Garden and yet never till'd',Of a Lady in the Black Masque. See Appendix C, pp.433-7.

33'The Heavens rejoice in motion', 'Tell her if she to hired servants show', 'True love finds wit', 'Deare Love continue nice and chaste', 'Shall I goe force an Elegie?', 'Men write that Love and Reason disagree', 'Come Fates: I feare you not', 'If her disdaine'. The authorship of these is discussed later.

A note on the first page in a modern hand says, 'The pieces which I have extracted for the "Specimens" are, Page 91, 211, 265.' What 'Specimens' are referred to I do not know: the pieces are 'You nimble dreams', signed H. (i.e. John Hoskins); 'Upon his mistresses inconstancy' ('Thou art prettie but inconstant'); andCupid and the Clowne. The manuscript was purchased at Bishop Heber's sale in 1836.

34I refer to it occasionally asTCD(II), and (once it has been made plain that this is the collection referred to throughout) as simplyTCD.

35Since Mr. Pearsall-Smith transcribed these poems, which I subsequently collated, the house at Burley-on-the-Hill has been burned down and the manuscript volume has perished.

36The Complete Poems of John Donne, D.D., Dean of St. Paul's. For the First Time Fully Collected and Collated With The Original and Early Editions And MSS. And Enlarged With Hitherto Unprinted And Inedited Poems From MSS. &c.... By The Rev. Alexander B. Grosart, &c. The Fuller Worthies' Library, 1872-3. Dr. Grosart's favourite manuscript was the Stephens (S). When that failed him he used Addl. MS. 18643 (A18), whose relation to the manuscripts in Trinity College, Dublin and Cambridge (TCD,TCC) he did not suspect, though he collated these. Some poems he printed from the Hazlewood-Kingsburgh MS. or the Farmer-Chetham MS. The first two are not good texts of Donne's poems, the last two are miscellaneous collections. The three firstSatyresDr. Grosart printed from Harleian MS. 5110 (H51); and he used other sources for the poems he ascribed to Donne. It cannot be said that he always recorded accurately the readings of the manuscript from which he printed. I have made no effort to record all the differences between Grosart's text and my own.

The description of the editions which Grosart gives at ii, p. liii is amazingly inaccurate, considering that he claimed to have collated 'all the early and later printed editions'. He describes1639,1649,1650, and1654as identical with one another, and declares that the younger Donne is responsible only for1669, which appeared after his death.

37The Poems of John Donne From The Text of The Edition of 1633 Revised By James Russell Lowell With The Various Readings of The Other Editions Of The Seventeenth Century, And With A Preface, An Introduction, And Notes By Charles Eliot Norton. New York.1895. In preparing the text from Lowell's copy of1633, emended in pencil by him, Professor Norton was assisted by Mrs. Burnett, the daughter of Mr. Lowell. As I could not apportion the responsibility for the text I have spoken throughout my textual notes and remarks of 'the Grolier Club editor' (Grolierfor short). I have accepted Professor Norton as the sole author of the commentary. For instances where the punctuation has been altered, and the meaning, in my opinion, obscured, I may refer to the textual notes onThe Legacie(p.20),The Dreame(p.37),A nocturnall upon S. Lucies day(p.44). But I have cited and discussed most of the cases in which I disagree with the Grolier Club editors. It is for readers to judge whether at times they may not be right, and I have gone astray. The Grolier Club edition only came into my hands when I had completed my first collation of the printed texts. Had I known it sooner, or had the edition been more accessible, I should probably not have ventured on the arduous task of editing Donne. It is based on the best text, and the editors have been happier than most in their interpretation and punctuation of the more difficult passages.

Professor Norton made no use of the manuscripts in preparing the text, but he added in an appendix an account of the manuscript which, following him, I have calledN, and he gave a list of variants which seemed to him possible emendations. Later, in theChild Memorial VolumeofStudies and Notes in Philology and Literature(1896), he gave a somewhat fuller description ofNand descriptions ofS(the Stephens MS.) andCy(the Carnaby MS.). Of the readings which Professor Norton noted, several have passed into my edition on the authority of a wider collation of the manuscripts.

38Poems of John Donne Edited By E. K. Chambers. With An Introduction By George Saintsbury. London and New York. 1896.Of the editions Mr. Chambers says: 'Nor can it be said that any one edition always gives the best text; even for a single poem, sometimes one, sometimes another is to be preferred, though, as a rule, the edition of1633is the most reliable, and the readings of1669are in many cases a return to it' (vol. i, p. xliv). A considerable portion of Mr. Chambers' edition would seem to have been 'set up' from a copy of the 1639 edition, the earlier and later readings being then either incorporated or recorded. The result is that the1633or1633-35readings have been more than once overlooked. This applies especially to theEpicedesand theDivine Poems.

As with the Grolier Club edition, so with Mr. Chambers' edition, I have recorded and discussed the chief differences between my text and his. I have worked with his edition constantly beside me. I used it for my collations on account of its convenient numbering of the lines. To Mr. Chambers' commentary also I owe my first introduction to the wide field of the manuscripts. His knowledge of seventeenth-century literature and history, which even in 1896 was extensive, has directed me in taking up most of the questions of canon and authorship which I have investigated. It is easy to record one's points of disagreement with a predecessor; it is more difficult to estimate accurately how much one owes to his labours.

Mr. Chambers, too, has 'modernized the spelling and corrected the exceptionally chaotic punctuation of the old editions'. Of the latter changes he has, with one or two exceptions, preserved no record, so that when, as is sometimes the case, he has misunderstood the poet, it is impossible to get back to the original text of which the stops as well as the words are a part.]

39It is very unlikely that Donne had in his possession when he died manuscript copies of his early poems. (1) Walton makes no mention of them when enumerating the works which Donne left behind in manuscript, including 'six score sermons all written with his own hand; also an exact and laborious treatise concerning self-murder, calledBiathanatos', as well as elaborate notes on authors and events. (2) In 1614, when Donne thought of publishing his poems, he found it necessary to beg for copies from his friends: 'By this occasion I am made a Rhapsoder of mine own rags, and that cost me more diligence to seek them, then it did to make them. This made me aske to borrow that old book of you.'To Sir H. G., Vigilia St. Tho. 1614.(3) Jonson and Walton both tell us that Donne, after taking Orders, would have been glad to destroy his early poems. The sincerity of this wish has been doubted because of what he says in a letter regardingBiathanatos: 'I only forbid it the press and the fire.' ButBiathanatosis a very different matter from the poems. It is a grave and devout, if daring, treatise in casuistry. No one can enter into Donne's mind from 1617 onwards, as ascetic devotion became a more and more sincere and consuming passion, and believe that he kept copies of the early poems or paradoxes, prepared for the press like his sermons or devotions.

40Contributions To The Textual Criticism of The Divina Commedia, &c. By the Rev. Edward Moore, D.D., &c. Cambridge, 1889.The tests which Dr. Moore lays down for the judgement, on internal grounds, of a reading are—I state them shortly in my own words—(1) That is the best reading which best explains the erroneous readings. I have sometimes recorded a quite impossible reading of a manuscript because it clearly came from one rather than another of two rivals, and thus lends support to that reading despite its own aberration. (2) Generally speaking, 'Difficilior lectio potior,' the more difficult reading is the more likely to be the original. This applies forcibly in the case of a subtle and difficult author like Donne. The majority of the changes made in the later editions arise from the tendency to make Donne's thought more commonplace. Even in1633errors have crept in. The obsolete words 'lation' (p.94, l. 47), 'crosse' (p.43, l. 14) have been altered; the old-fashioned and metaphorically used idiom 'in Nature's gifts' has confused the editor's punctuation; the subtle thought of the epistles has puzzled and misled. (3) 'Three minor considerations may be added which are often very important, when applicable, though they are from the nature of the case less frequently available.'Moore. These are (a) the consistency of the reading with sentiments expressed by the author elsewhere. I have used theSermonsand other prose works to illustrate and check Donne's thought and vocabulary throughout. (b) The relation of the reading to the probable source of the poet's thought. A Scholastic doctrine often lurks behind Donne's wit, ignorance of which has led to corruption of the text. SeeThe Dreame, p.37, ll. 7, 16;To Sr Henry Wotton, p.180, ll. 17-18. (c) The relation of a reading to historical fact. In the letterTo Sr Henry Wotton, p.187, the editors, forgetting the facts, have confused Cadiz with Calais, and the Azores with St. Michael's Mount.

41It is worth while to compare the kind of mistakes in which a manuscript abounds with those which occur in a printed edition. The tendency of the copyist was to write on without paying much attention to the sense, dropping words and lines, sometimes two consecutive half-lines or whole stanzas, ignoring or confounding punctuation, mistaking words, &c. He was, if a professional copyist or secretary, not very apt to attempt emendation. The kind of errors he made were easily detected when the proof was read over, or when the manuscript was revised with a view to printing. Words or half-lines could be restored, &c. But in such revision a new and dangerous source of error comes into play, the tendency of the editor to emend.

42Take a few instances where the latest editor, very naturally and explicably, securing at places a reading more obvious and euphonious, has departed from1633and followed1635or1669. I shall take them somewhat at random and include a few that may seem still open to discussion. InThe Undertaking(p.10, l. 18), for 'Vertue attir'd in woman see',1633, Mr. Chambers reads, with1635-69, 'Vertue in woman see.' So:

In all these passages, and I could cite others, it seems to me (I have stated my reasons fully in the notes) that if the sense of the passage be carefully considered, or Donne's use of words (e.g. 'mis-devotion'), or the tenor of his thought, the reading of1633is either clearly correct or has much to be said for it. Now in all these cases the reading has the support of all the manuscripts, or of the most and the best.

43e.g. 'their nothing' p.31, l. 53; 'reclaim'd' p.56, l. 25; 'sport' p.56, l. 27.]

44The1633text of these letters, which is generally that ofA18,N,TC, is better than I was at one time disposed to think, though there are some indubitable errors and perhaps some original variants. The crucial reading is at p.197, l. 58, where1633andA18,N,TCread 'not naturally free', while1635-69andO'Fread 'borne naturally free', at first sight an easier and more natural text, and adopted by both Chambers and Grosart. But consideration of the passage, and of what Donne says elsewhere, shows that the1633reading is certainly right.

45The1650printer delighted in colons, which he generally substituted for semicolons indiscriminately.

The authenticity of all the poems ascribed to Donne in the old editions is a question which has never been systematically and fully considered by his editors and critics. A number of poems not included in these editions have been attributed to him by Simeon (1856), Grosart (1873), and others on very insufficient grounds, whether of external evidence or internal probability. Of the poems published in1633, one, Basse'sAn Epitaph upon Shakespeare, was withdrawn at once; another,the metricalPsalme 137, has been discredited and Chambers drops it.1Of those which were added in1635, oneTo Ben Ionson. 6 Ian. 1603, has been dropped by Grosart, the Grolier Club edition, and Chambers on the strength of a statement made to Drummond by Ben Jonson.2But the editors have accepted Jonson's statement without apparently giving any thought to the question whether, if this particular poem is by Roe, the same must not be true of its companion pieces,To Ben. Ionson. 9 Novembris, 1603. andTo Sir Tho. Roe. 1603. They are inserted together in1635, and are strikingly similar in heading, in style, and in verse. Nor has any critic, so far as I know, taken up the larger question raised by rejecting one of the poems ascribed to Donne in1635, namely, are not all the poems then added made thereby to some extent suspect, and if so can we distinguish those which are from those which are not genuine? I propose then to discuss, in the light afforded by a wider and more connected survey of the seventeenth-century manuscript collections, the authenticity of the poems ascribed to Donne in the old editions, and to ask what, if any, poems may be added to those there published.

For this discussion an invaluable starting-point is afforded by the edition of 1633, the manuscript groupD,H49,Lec, and the manuscript groupA18,N,TCC,TCD. Taken together, and used to check one another, these three collections provide us with acorpusof indubitable poems which may be used as a test by which to try other claimants. Of course, it must be clearly understood that the only proof which can be offeredthat Donne is the author of many poems is, that they are ascribed to him in edition after edition and manuscript after manuscript, and that they bear a strong family resemblance. There is no edition issued by himself or in his lifetime.3

Bearing this in mind we find that in the edition of 1633 there are only two poems—Basse'sEpitaph on Shakespeareand thePsalme 137, both already mentioned—for the genuineness of which there is not strong evidence, internal and external. But these two poems are theonlyones not contained inD,H49,Lecor inA18,N,TC. InD,H49,Lec, on the other hand, there are no poems which are not, on the same evidence, genuine. There are, however, some which are not in1633, seven in all. But of these, five are theElegieswhich, we have seen above, the editor of1633was prohibited from printing. The others are theLecture upon the Shadow(why omitted in1633I cannot say) and the lines 'My fortune and my choice'. There are poems in1633which are not inD,H49,Lec. These, with the exception of poems previously printed, as theAnniversariesand theElegie on Prince Henry, are all inA18,N,TC. This last collection does contain some twelve poems not by Donne, but of these the majority are found only inNandTCD, and they make no pretence to be Donne's. Three are initialled 'J. R.' (inTCD), and two of these, with some poems by Overbury and Beaumont, are not part of the Donne collection but are added at the end. Another poem is initialled 'R. Cor.' The only poems which are included among Donne's poems as though by him areThe Paradox('Whoso terms Love a fire') and the Letter or Elegy, 'Madam soe may my verses pleasing be.' Of these, the first is in all four manuscripts, the second only inNandTCD. Neither is inD,H49,Lec, or1633. The last is by Beaumont, and follows immediately a letter by Donne to the same lady, the Countess of Bedford. Doubtless the two poems have come from some collection in which theywere transcribed together, ultimately from a commonplace-book of the Countess herself. The formermaybe by Donne, but has probably adhered for a like reason to his paradox, 'No lover saith' (p. 302), which immediately precedes it.

We have thus three collections, each of which has kept its canon pure or very nearly so, and in which any mistake by one is checked by the absence of the poem in the other two. It cannot be by accident that these collections are so free from the unauthentic poems which other manuscripts associate with Donne's. Those who prepared them must have known what they were about. Marriot must have had some help in securing a text on the whole so accurate as that of1633, and in avoiding spurious poems on the whole so well. When that guidance was withdrawn he was only too willing to go a-gathering what would swell the compass of his volume. If then a poem does not occur in any of these collections it is not necessarily unauthentic, but as no such poem has anything like the wide support of the manuscripts that these have, it should present its credentials, and approve its authenticity on internal grounds if external are not available.

We start then with a strong presumption, coming as close to demonstration as the circumstances of the case will permit, in favour of the absolute genuineness of all the poems in1633(a glance down the list headed 'Source' in the 'Contents' will show what these are) except the two mentioned, and of all the poems added in1635, or later editions, which are also inD,H49,LecandA18,N,TC.4These last (to which I prefix the date of first publication) are—

(These are the fiveElegiessuppressed in1633—at such long intervals did they find their way into print.)

We may add to these, without lengthy investigation, the fourHoly Sonnetsadded in1635:—

For these (though in none of the three collections) we have, besides internal probability, the evidence ofW, clearly an unexceptionable manuscript witness. Walton, too, vouches for the authenticity of theHymne to God my God, in my sicknesse, which indeed no one but Donne could have written.

This leaves for investigation, of poems inserted in1635,1649,1650, or1669, the following:—

Of these twenty-three poems there is none which does not seem to me fairly open to question, though of some I think Donne is certainly the author.

Seven of the twenty-three (3, 6, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17) I have gathered together in my Appendix A, with two ('Shall I goe force' and 'True love finds witt', the first of which6was printed inLe Prince d'Amour, 1660, and reprinted by Simeon, 1856, and Grosart, 1872), as the work not of Donne but of Sir John Roe. The reasons which have led me to do so are not perhaps singly conclusive, but taken together they form a converging and fairly convincing demonstration. The argument starts from Ben Jonson's statement to Drummond of Hawthornden regarding the Epistle at p. 408 (15 above): 'That Sir John Roe loved him; and that when they two wereushered by my Lord Suffolk from a Mask, Roe writt a moral Epistle to him, which began. That next to playes the Court and the State were the best. God threatneth Kings, Kings Lords [as] Lords do us.' (Drummond's Conversations with Jonson), ed. Laing.

Now this statement of Jonson's is confirmed by some at any rate of the manuscripts which contain the poem (see textual notes) since these append the initials 'J. R.' But all the manuscripts which contain the one poem contain also the next, 'If great men wrong me,' and though none have added the initials 'J. R.',B, in which it has been separated from 'The state and mens affairs' by two other poems, appends 'doubtfull author' (the whole collection being professedly one of Donne's poems). The third poem,To Sr Tho. Roe, 1603(p. 410), is in the same way found in all the manuscripts (except two, which are one,H40andRP31) which contain the epistles to Jonson, generally in their immediate proximity, and inBinitialled 'J. R.' In the others the poem is unsigned, and inL74a much later hand has added 'J. D.'

Of the other poems, the first—the poem which was in1669printed as Donne's seventhSatyre, was dropped in1719but restored by Chalmers, Grosart, and Chambers—is said inBto be 'By Sir John Roe', and it is initialled 'J. R.' inTCD. Even an undiscriminating manuscript likeO'Fadds the note 'Quere, if Donnes or Sr Th: Rowes', the more famous Sir Thomas Roe being substituted for his (in 1632) forgotten relative. Of the remaining five poems only two, 'Dear Love, continue nice and chaste' (p.412) and 'Shall I goe force an Elegie?' (p.410) are actually initialled in any of the manuscripts in which I have found them.

But the presence or absence of a name or initials is not a conclusive argument. It depends on the character of the manuscript. That 'Sleep next Society' is initialled 'J. R.' in so carefully prepared a collection of Donne's poems asTCDis valuable evidence, and the initials in a collection so well vouched for asHN, Drummond's copy of a collection of poems in the possession of Donne, can only be set aside bya scepticism which makes all historical questions insoluble. But no reliance can be placed upon the unsupported statement of any other of the manuscripts in which some or all of these poems occur, any more than on that of the 1635 and later editions. The best of them (H40,RP31) are often silent, and the others are too often mistaken to be implicitly trusted. If we are to get the truth from them it must be by cross-examination.

For the second proof on which my ascription of the poems to Roe is based is the singular regularity with which they adhere to one another. If a manuscript has one it generally has the rest in close proximity. ThusB, after giving thirty-six poems by Donne, of which only one is wrongly ascribed, continues with a number that are clearly by other authors as well as Donne, and of ten sequent poems five are 'Sleep next Society,' 'The State and mens affairs,' 'True love finds witt,' 'If great men wrong mee,' 'Dear Thom: Tell her if she.' A fragment of 'Men say that love and reason disagree' comes rather later.H40andRP31give in immediate sequence 'The State and mens affairs,' 'If great men wrong me,' 'True Love finds witt,' 'Shall I goe force an elegie,' 'Come Fates; I fear you not.'L74, a collection not only of poems by Donne but of the work of other wits of the day, transcribes in immediate sequence 'Deare Love continue,' 'The State and mens affairs,' 'If great men wrong mee,' 'Shall I goe force an elegie,' 'Tell her if shee,' 'True love finds witt,' 'Come Fates, I fear you not.' LastlyA10, a quite miscellaneous collection, gives in immediate or very close sequence '[Dear Thom:] Tell her if she,' 'True love finds witt,' 'Dear Love continue nice and chaste,' 'Shall I goe force an elegie,' 'Men write that love and reason disagree.' 'Come Fates; I fear you not' follows after a considerable interval.

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