M. R. B. [Anon ; Epitaph], Endy. Porter.

The second edition, which, like the subsequent ones, is an octavo, appeared in 1635. There is a portrait engraved by ISlarshall ; the Hexastichon ad Biblio- polam is added to the prefatory matter, and the poems are arranged in sections beginning with the Songs and Sonnets and ending with the Divine Poems. These changes are retained in the later editions. The title-page is the same as that of 1633, The third edition of 1639 and fourth of 1649 are almost identical with that of 1635.
In the meantime, it appears by a document in the Record Office, dated Dec. 16, 1637, and printed by Dr. Grosart, that legal steps had been taken by the younger Donne to recover certain rights over the Poems which he alleged John Marriott had disregarded. The dispute does not seem to have interfered with the publication of the editions of 1639 and 1649 ; indeed it would appear that the conflicting parties came to terms, for the fifth edition, that of 1650, was clearly published under the superintend-
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE. xliii
ence of the younger Donne himself. It has the follow- ing title-page —
Poems | By J. D. | with | Elegies I on the author's death. I To WHICH I Is added divers copies under his own hand \ never before i?i print. \ London. | Printed for John Marriot, and are | to be sold by Richard Marriot at his shop | by Chan- eery Lane" end over against the Inner | Temple gate, 1650.
The Printer to the Understanders is replaced by the dedication to Lord Craven ; and this is followed by the Hexastichon Bibliopolae, the Hcxastichon ad BibliO' polam, and Ben Jonson's lines beginning "Donne, the delight of Phoebus and each Muse." At the end of the Divine Poems is inserted a kind of appendix, containing, besides some additional poems, two other sets of verses on Donne from Ben Jonson's Epigrams of 1616, a prose sketch entitled News from the very Country, already printed in the sixth edition of Sir Thomas Overbury's Characters (1615), a burlesque Latin Catalogus Lib- rorum (see Appendix D), and what appears to be a Latin address to Convocation.
In the 1635 and all following editions the Elegy by Tho. Browne was omitted, and three were added, signed respectively by Daniel Darnelly, Sidney Godolphin, and J. Chudleigh. The sixth edition of 1654 resembles that of 1650, except that it is "Printed by J. Plesher, and are to be sold by John Sweeting at the Angel in Popes- head Alley, 1654."
The seventh and last of the seventeenth-century editions is that of 1669. This again has a new title-page, on which the author's name appears for the first time in fuU—
POEMS, etc. I By | John Donne, | late Dean of St. Pauls I with elegies | on the | author's DEATH. I To which is added | Divers Copies under his own hand, | Never before printed. | In the SA VOY, I Printed by T. N. for Henry Herringman, at the Sign of | the Anchor, in the lower- walk of the I New Exchange, 1669.
xliv BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE.
Mr. Hazlitt {Handbook) states that pages 95 to 98 of this edition, containing Elegies XIX. and XX., were sup- pressed. All the editions contain, as well as the poems, thirteen prose letters, of which eight are to Sir Henry Goodyere, one to La[dy] G[oodyere ?], one to the Countess of Bedford, and three to Mr. G[eorge] G[arrard].
The book evidently underwent considerable revision in 1635, 1650, and again in 1669. Not only were additional poems printed from time to time, but also there exists great divergence of reading between the various copies. Even the editions of 1639 and 1654, though they differ very slightly from those of 1635 and 1650 respectively, cannot be said to be altogether identical with them. These variations, which are especially noticeable in the Songs and So7inets and in the Satires, are not merely due to the printers. In all probability most of Donne's poems existed in several more or less revised forms, and it was something a matter of chance which form was used for printing a particular edition. 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 of 1633 is the most reliable, and the readings of 1669 are in many cases a return to it.
Certain unpublished poems of Donne's, together with others which are not really his, were collected by Waldron in his Collection of Miscellaneous Poetry (1802), and by Sir John Simeon in one of the Philobiblon Society's tracts (1856). A few others may be gathered from various printed and manuscript sources. These will be found in the appendices to this edition. The eighteenth-century and modern editions are mostly of httle value. That by Dr. Grosart, privately printed in the Fuller Worthies Library, 1873, is a work of much zeal, industry and learn- ing. I have derived benefit from it in many ways. But in contains many inaccuracies, and the text is spoilt throughout by being taken from bad MSS. instead of from the printed copies.
E. K. C.
xlv
THE PRINTER
TO
THE UNDERSTANDERS.'
For this time I must speak only to you : at another, Readers may perchance serve my turn ; and I think this a way very free from exception, in hope that very few will have a mind to confess themselves ignorant.
If you look for an Epistle, as you have before ordinary publications, I am sorry that I must deceive you ; but you will not lay it to my charge, when you shall consider that this is not ordinary, for if I should say it were the best in this kind, that ever this kingdom hath yet seen ; he that would doubt of it must go out of the kingdom to inform himself, for the best judg- ments within it take it for granted.
You may imagine (if it please you) that I could endear it unto you, by saying, that impor-
* From tke edition of 1633.
xlvi DONNE'S POEMS.
tunity drew it on ; that had it not been presented here, it would have come to us from beyond the seas (which perhaps is true enough) ; that my charge and pains in procuring of it hath been such, and such. I could add hereto, a promise of more correctness or enlargement in the next edition, if you shall in the meantime content you with this But these things are so com- mon, as that I should profane this piece by applying them to it ; a piece which whoso takes not as he finds it, in what manner soever, he is unworthy of it, sith a scattered limb of this author hath more amiableness in it, in the eye of a discerner, than a whole body of some other ; or (to express him best by himself) —
" A hand, or eye, By Hilyard drawn, is worth a history By a worse painter made "
If any man (thinking I speak this to inflame him for the vent of the impression) be of another opinion, I shall as willingly spare his money as his judgment. I cannot lose so much by him as he will by himself. For I shall satisfy myself with the conscience of well-doing, in making so much good, common.
Howsoever it may appear to you, it shall suffice me to inform you, that it hath the best
PRINTER TO THE UNDERSTANDERS. xlvii
warrant that can be, public authority, and private friends.
There is one thing more wherein I will make you of my counsel, and that is, that whereas it hath pleased some, who had studied and did admire him, to offer to the memory of the author, not long after his decease, I have thought I should do you service in presenting them unto you now ; only whereas, had I placed them in the beginning, they might have served for so many encomiums of the author (as is usual in other works, where perhaps there is need of it, to prepare men to digest such stuff as follows after), you shall find^ them in the end, for who- soever reads the rest so far, shall perceive that there is no occasion to use them to that purpose ; yet there they are, as an attestation for their sakes that knew not so much before, to let them see how much honour was attributed to this worthy man, by those that are capable to give it. Farewell.
1 163S here find
xlix
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
WILLIAM LORD CRAVEN,
baron of hampsted-marsham.^
My Lord,
Many of these poems have, for several impres- sions, wandered up and down, trusting (as well they might) upon the author's reputation ; neither do they now complain of any injury but what may proceed either from the kindness of the printer, or the courtesy of the reader ; the one by adding something too much, lest any spark of this sacred fire might perish undis- cerned, the other by putting such an estimation upon the wit and fancy they find here, that they are content to use it as their own : as if a man should dig out the stones of a royal amphitheatre to build a stage for a country show. Amongst all the monsters this unlucky age has teemed with, I find none so prodigious as the poets of these later times, wherein men, as if they would level understandings too as well as estates, acknowledging no inequality of parts and judgments,
1 From the edition of 1650.
1 DONNE'S POEMS.
pretend as indifferently to the chair of wit as to the pulpit, and conceive themselves no less inspired with the spirit of poetry than with that of religion : so it is not only the noise of drums and trumpets which have drowned the Muses' harmony, or the fear that the Church's ruin will destroy their priests likewise, that now frights them from this country, where they have been so ingenuously received ; but these rude pretenders to excellencies they unjustly own, who profanely rushing into Minerva's temple, with noisome airs blast the laurel which thunder cannot hurt. In this sad condition these learned sisters are fled over to beg your lordship's protection, who have been so certain a patron both to arts and arms, and who in this general confusion have so entirely preserved your honour, that in your lordship we may still read a most perfect character of what England was in all her pomp and greatness, so that although these poems were formerly written upon several occasions, and to several persons, they now unite themselves, and are become one pyramid to set your lordship's statue upon, where you may stand like armed Apollo the defender of the Muses, encouraging the poets now alive to celebrate your great acts by affording your countenance to his poems that wanted only so noble a suljject.
My Lord,
Your most humble servant,
John Donne.
Hexasticiion Bibliopolae.*
I see in his last preacJi d and printed book^ His picture in a sheet ; in PaiiTs I look. And see his statue in a sheet of stone. And sure his body in the grave hath one ; Those sheets presait him dead ; these if you buy. You have him living to eternity.
Jo. ]\Iar[riot].
Hexastichon ad Bibliopolam. Incerti.2
In thy impression of Donne' s poems rare, For his eternity thou hast to! en care: ' Twas well, and pious ; and for ever may He live ; yet show I thee a better way ; Print but his sermons, and if those lue btiy^ He, we, and thou shall live f eternity.
' From the edition of 1633. 2 From the edition of 1635.
Hi DONNE'S POEMS.
TO JOHN DONNE.i
Donne, the delight of Phccbus, and each Muse, Who, to thy one, all other brains refuse ; Whose every work, of thy 7nost early tuit. Came forth example^ and remains so, yet; Longer a knowing, than most ivits do live ; And which no^n affection praise enough can give I To it, thy language, letters, arts, best life. Which might with half mankind maintain a strife ; All which I mean to praise, and yet, I would ; But leave, because I cannot as I should.
B. JONSON.
1 From the edition of iG^a
SONGS AND SONNETS.
THE FLEA.
Mark but this flea, and mark in this, How little that which thou deniest me is ; It suck'd me first, and now sucks thee, And in this flea our two bloods mingled be. Thou know'st that this cannot be said A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead ;
Yet this enjoys before it woo,
And pamper'd swells with one blood made of two ;
And this, alas ! is more than we would do.
O stay, three lives in one flea spare, lo
Where we almost, yea, more than married are. This flea is you and I, and this Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is.