The Poems of John Donne, Volume 2 (of 2): Edited from the Old Editions and Numerous ManuscriptsDonne, John
General
The Poems of John Donne, Volume 2 (of 2): Edited from the Old Editions and Numerous Manuscripts
Donne, John
English poetry -- Early modern, 1500-1700
The _Poems by J. D. with Elegies on the Authors Death_ were reprinted
by M. F. for John Harriot in 1635 (the title-page is here reproduced),
but with very considerable alterations. The introductory material
remained unchanged except that to the _Hexastichon Bibliopolae_ was
added a _Hexastichon ad Bibliopolam. Incerti_. (See p. 3.) To the
title-page was prefixed a portrait in an oval frame. Outside the frame
is engraved, to the left top, ANNO DNI. 1591. ÆTATIS SVÆ. 18.; to
the right top, on a band ending in a coat of arms, ANTES MVERTO
QUE MVDADO. Underneath the engraved portrait and background is the
following poem:
_This was for youth, Strength, Mirth, and wit that Time
Most count their golden Age; but t'was not thine.
Thine was thy later yeares, so much refind
From youths Drosse, Mirth, & wit; as thy pure mind
Thought (like the Angels) nothing but the Praise
Of thy Creator, in those last, best Dayes.
Witnes this Booke, (thy Embleme) which begins
With Love; but endes, with Sighes, & Teares for sins._
IZ: WA:
_Will: Marshall sculpsit_.[5]
_The Printer to the Understanders_ is still followed immediately by
the dedication, _Infinitati Sacrum_, of _The Progresse of the Soule_,
although the poem itself is removed to another part of the volume. The
printer noticed this mistake, and at the end of the _Elegies upon the
Author_ adds this note:
_Errata_.[6]
_Cvrteous Reader, know, that that Epistle intituled, Infinitati
Sacrum, 16. of August, 1601. which is printed in the
beginning of the Booke, is misplaced; it should have beene
printed before the Progresse of the Soule, in Page 301.
before which it was written by the Author; if any other in the
Impression doe fall out, which I know not of, hold me excused
for I have endeavoured thy satisfaction._
Thine, I. M.
The closing lines of Walton's poem show that it must have been written
for this edition, as they refer to what is the chief feature in the
new issue of the poems (pp. 1-388, including some prose letters in
Latin and English, pp. 275-300, but not including the _Elegies upon
the Author_ which in this edition and those of 1639, 1649, 1650,
and 1654 are added in unnumbered pages). This new feature is their
arrangement in a series of groups:[7]--
Songs and Sonets.
Epigrams.
Elegies.
Epithalamions, _or_, Marriage Songs.
Satyres.
Letters to Severall Personages.
Funerall Elegies, (including _An Anatomie of the
World_ with _A Funerall Elegie_, _Of the Progresse of
the Soule_, and _Epicedes and Obsequies upon the
deaths of sundry Personages_.)
(Letters in Prose).[8]
The Progresse of the Soule.
Divine Poems.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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