The Complete Poems of Sir John Davies. Volume 2 of 2.Davies, John, Sir
General
The Complete Poems of Sir John Davies. Volume 2 of 2.
Davies, John, Sir
Davies, John, Sir, 1569-1626; English poetry -- Early modern, 1500-1700
From a confused inscription on the first page of the MS. its probable
writer is ascertained. It is as follows "Ex spoliis Richardi Wharfe,
ex...... It is much trouble and much.... Ex spoliis R. W." Underneath
is the book-plate of John, Duke of Newcastle. The general title
runs "Epigramma in Musam, like Buckminster's Allmanacks servinge
generallie for all England: but especiallie for the meridian of this
famous Cittie of London." I regret that besides these (mis-called)
'improvements,' so admirable an Editor should have _modernized_
throughout, the ORTHOGRAPHY equally of MARLOWE and
of DAVIES: and all the more, that in his 'Notes' he adheres
to the original orthography whenever he quotes from his wealth of
illustrative extracts. The annotation condemns the text. Without
any hesitation therefore, I have set aside Mr. Dyce's reprints, and
returned (as _supra_) to Davies' own text and orthography, saving a
slight reduction of capitals and italics. None the less do I owe thanks
to Mr. Dyce for his kind permission kindly given, to use any 'Notes'
that might be deemed interesting. Those that I have taken are marked
with his initial, D. I have to add another important correction of Mr.
Dyce. After describing the HARLEIAN MS. he observes "Though it
is of a date considerably posterior to the first appearance in print
of _Epigrams by I. D._, perhaps ALL THE PIECES WHICH IT EXHIBITS
ARE FROM THE PEN OF DAVIES. (page 353.) HOMER nods here:
for on reading these additional 'Epigrams' thus assigned to Davies,
I at once discovered that they consisted merely of a like blundering
transcript of the "Satyricall Epigrams" of HENRY HUTTON,
Dunelmensis, that were appended to his "Follie's Anatomie or Satyres"
(1619.) The oversight is the more noticeable in that all these were
reprinted in 1842, (edited by Rimbault), for the Percy Society, whereof
Mr. Dyce was one of the most effective members of Council.
I confess that it was far from a disappointment to find that the
'Epigrams' of Davies were not to be increased to the extent they would
have been had I accepted Mr. Dyce's opinion, and failed to discover the
Hutton-authorship of nearly all those in the Manuscript, additional to
his acknowledged ones. Nevertheless in the Appendix to our reprint of
the 'Epigrams' I give certain additions from this Manuscript, that are
found neither in Davies's nor Hutton's publications, but which seem to
me to have the _ring_ of Davies in them. The remainder--prefixed and
affixed--may well be left in Manuscript. See the Memorial-Introduction
for more on these Epigrams. G.
_Epigrammes._
AD MUSAM. 1.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account