The Variorum Edition of the Poetry of John Donne, Volume 7.1

Gary A. Stringer is Professor of English at Texas A&M University. Paul A. Parrish is Regents Professor and head of the Department of English at Texas A&M University.

Contents Acknowledgments Short Forms of Reference for Donne's Works Abbreviations Used in the Commentary Sigla for Textual Sources Manuscripts Listed by Traditional Classification Symbols and Abbreviations Used in the Textual Apparatus General Introduction Introduction to Volume 7.1 General Textual Introduction The Critical Tradition Texts and Apparatuses The Holy Sonnets Original Sequence 1. [Thou hast made me,] HSMade 2. [As due by many titles] HSDue 3. [O might those sighes] HSSighs 4. [Father, part of his double Interest] HSPart 5. [O my blacke Soule,] HSBlack 6. [This is my Playes last scene,] HSScene 7. [I am a litle World,] HSLittle 8. [At the round Earths Imagin'd corners] HSRound 9. [Yf poysonous Mineralls,] HSMin 10. [Yf faithfull Soules] HSSouls 11. [Death be not proud,] HSDeath 12. [Wilt thou loue God,] HSWilt Westmoreland Sequence 1. [Thou hast made me,] HSMade 2. [As due by many titles] HSDue 3. [O might those sighes] HSSighs 4. [Father, part of his double interest] HSPart 5. [Oh my black Soule,] HSBlack 6. [This is my Playes last Scene,] HSScene 7. [I ame a litle World,] HSLittle 8. [At the round Earths imagind corners] HSRound 9. [If poysonous Minerals,] HSMin 10. [If faythfull Soules] HSSouls 11. [Death be not proud,] HSDeath 12. [Wilt thou love God,] HSWilt 13. [Spitt in my face] HSSpit 14. [Why ame I by all Creatures] HSWhy 15. [What yf this present] HSWhat 16. [Batter my hart,] HSBatter 17. [Since She whome I lovd,] HSShe 18. [Show me deare Christ,] HSShow 19. [Oh, to vex me,] HSVex Revised Sequence 1. [As due by many titles] HSDue 2. [Oh my black Soule,] HSBlack 3. [This is my Playes last Scene,] HSScene 4. [At the round Earths imagin'd corners] HSRound 5. [If poysonous mineralls,] HSMin 6. [Death bee not proude,] HSDeath 7. [Spitt in my face] HSSpit 8. [Why are wee by all Creatures] HSWhy 9. [What if this present] HSWhat 10. [Batter my heart,] HSBatter 11. [Wilt thou loue God] HSWilt 12. [Father, part of his double interest] HSPart Lists of Copy-Texts and Emendations for the Three Sequences Textual Introductions and Apparatuses for Individual Holy Sonnets (arranged alphabetically by short forms) HSBatter HSBlack HSDeath HSDue HSLittle HSMade HSMin HSPart HSRound HSScene HSShe HSShow HSSighs HSSouls HSSpit HSVex HSWhat HSWhy HSWilt Analyses of Early Printed Copies Appendices Appendix 1: The 1635 Sequence Appendix 2: A Note on Identifying Authorial Revisions Among Manuscript Variants Commentary The Holy Sonnets General Commentary on the Holy Sonnets Dating and Order The Poet/Persona Genre and Traditions Language and Style Prosody Sacred and Profane Themes The Holy Sonnets and Other Works Commentary on Individual Holy Sonnets (arranged alphabetically by short forms) HSBatter Commentary Notes and Glosses HSBlack Commentary Notes and Glosses HSDeath Commentary Notes and Glosses HSDue Commentary Notes and Glosses HSLittle Commentary Notes and Glosses HSMade Commentary Notes and Glosses HSMin Commentary Notes and Glosses HSPart Commentary Notes and Glosses HSRound Commentary Notes and Glosses HSScene Commentary Notes and Glosses HSShe Commentary Notes and Glosses HSShow Commentary Notes and Glosses HSSighs Commentary Notes and Glosses HSSouls Commentary Notes and Glosses HSSpit Commentary Notes and Glosses HSVex Commentary Notes and Glosses Works Cited Index of Authors Cited in the Commentary Index of Writers and Historical Figures Cited in the Commentary Index of Other Poems and Works of Donne Cited in the Commentary Index of Titles Index of First Lines About the Editors

In the end, the Elegies are experiments in rhetoric, and whilst, for Donne as for Shakespeare, that does not automatically entail insincerity, it refuses to make sincerity the touchstone of excellence. We are seldom reminded as forcefully as by these poems that in the Latin poetry which underlies them the idea of rhetorical figuration is itself imaged as the application of cosmetics. March 2001 (New Criterion) An occasion for celebration. Among the most ambitious and valuable collaborative scholarly enterprises at the end of the twentieth century. Superb. (Early Modern Literary Studies) Academic libraries and specialists in Renaissance and 17th-century studies should feel compelled to own each and every volume of this series. (Seventeeth Century News) Like its predecessors, . . . [this] volume of the Donne Variorum enterprise to appear is a triumph in every way. (John Donne Journal) . . . This edition immediately displaces all its predecessors, and will be indispensable for scholars and libraries. (TLS) In this third volume in a projected eight-volume series, Stringer presents the most authoritative texts and fullest editorial history of the elegies, including textual apparatus from all known manuscripts and editions from the 17th century onward, and also a comprehensive summary of scholarly and critical commentary on the elegies (also from Donne's era onward). The remarkable insights in the textual/editorial component include identification of the most authoritative manuscript for the elegies (housed in the New York Public Library) and a persuasive speculation that the first 12 elegies in this manuscript reflect Donne's intended sequence. Critical insights reveal the early trend not to treat the elegies as a separate group but to integrate them into a discussion of Donne's amatory verse; the value of using the elegies as context for Donne's later amatory verse, notably Songs and Sonnets; moralistic and biographical readings, which sometimes characterize Donne as a libertine and denounce him for licentiousness; Donne as the first poet to write love elegies in English; the coteries for which the elegies were written and the scribal culture that copied and recopied them for presentation to such audiences of intellectuals. The volume contains five indexes and the most comprehensive bibliography on the elegies now available. Indispensable for large collections supporting 17th-century literature.February 2001 - A. C. Labriola (Duquesne University)