The Complete Poems of Sir John Davies. Volume 1 of 2.Davies, John, Sir
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The Complete Poems of Sir John Davies. Volume 1 of 2.
Davies, John, Sir
Davies, John, Sir, 1569-1626; English poetry -- Early modern, 1500-1700
_I. The Ten Sonnets to Philomel and Hymn to Music._ In my Fuller
Worthies' Library edition of Davies, I admitted "Canzonet: a Hymne
in praise of Musick" among his Poems (pp. 297-9) because in the
"Rhapsody" it bore his initials I. D. precisely as his other accepted
pieces therein did. But I excluded the 'Ten Sonnets to Philomel' from
their having the signature originally of "Melophilus," and I. D. only
subsequently. I too hastily agreed with Sir Egerton Brydges (in his
edition of the "Rhapsody" 2 Vols., 1826) in assigning them to Dean
Donne. I could not discern Donne's manner in the 'Canzonet,' and so
had no difficulty in rejecting Brydges' alleged 'internal evidence' in
respect of it, initialled as it was. Neither did I find the 'internal
evidence' in the 'Ten Sonnets' for its Donne authorship, but, in
addition to the early signature "Melophilus," there was a note of
"Manuscripts to get" by Davison, from Donne, that has seemed to warrant
the "Ten Sonnets" being regarded as his contribution, and the later I.
D. as representing J[ohn] D[onne], and not Sir John Davies. My friend
Dr. Brinsley Nicholson has satisfied me that Davison's List of MSS.
to be received could not refer to his "Rhapsody," but to some other
intended work or private collection; and so the one point in favour
of Donne falls to the ground. The evidence as communicated to myself,
and since, in a lengthy communication to the _Athenæum_ (January 22d,
1876), may be thus summarized, (1) There is nothing in Davison's
notings which even hints that he was thinking of the "Rhapsody." (2)
The greater number of the MSS. mentioned never appeared even by a
specimen in the "Rhapsody." (3) The second entry is of
"Sports, Masks, and Entertainments to y^{e} { late Queen
{ the King," &c.
Therefore it was written in or after 1603. But the first edition of
the "Rhapsody" containing the "Hymn to Music" signed I. D., and the
"Ten Sonnets" signed "Melophilus," and in the subsequent editions I.
D., was published in 1602, (4) There is not in the subsequent editions
a single piece by any of these memorandum-noted authors that is not in
the first--so shewing further that the memorandum had no reference to
the "Rhapsody." Of Donne and Constable there are in the editions 1608,
1611, 1621, only those given in 1602, and in no edition at all is there
a single specimen of Ben Jonson, Hodgson, Harington, Joseph Hall, &c.,
&c. There remains thus only (5). The I. D. evidence, e.g.:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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