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

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 17thcentury 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 17thcentury literature.February 2001 -- A. C. Labriola * Duquesne University *

Gary A. Stringer is Professor of English at Texas A&M University. Ted-Larry Pebworth is Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. John T. Shawcross is Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Kentucky. Ernest W. Sullivan II is Professor of English at Virginia Tech University. Paul A. Parrish is Professor of English at Texas A&M University.

Acknowledgments Short Forms of Reference for Donne's Works Abrreviations Used in the Commentary Sigla for Textual Sources Symbols and Abbreviations Used in the Textual Apparatus General Introduction Introduction to Volume 6 Texts and Apparatuses The Anniversaries To the Praise of the Dead, and the Anatomy. [Wel dy'de the world, that we might liue to see] The First Anniversary, An Anatomie of the World. [When that rich soule which to her Heaven is gone.] A Fvnerall Elegie. [Tis lost, to trust a Tombe with such a ghest,] The Harbinger to the Progres. [Two soules moue here, and mine (a third) must moue] The Second Anniuersaire, of The Progres of the Soule. [Nothing could make mee sooner to confesse] Textual Introducation Textual Apparatuses The Epicedes and Obsequies Elegia. [Sorrow, who to this house, scarse knew the way] Textual Introduction Textual Appartus An Elegie vpon the death of the Ladie Marckam. [Man is the world, and Death the Ocean] Textual Introduction Textual Appartus An Elegie vpon the death of Mrs. Bulstrod, [Death I recant, and say, vnsaid by mee] Textual Introduction Textual Appartus Elegie vpon the death of Mrs. Boulstred. [Language thou art too narrowe, and too weake] Textual Introduction Textual Apparatus Elegie On the Vntimely Death of the incomparable Prince, Henry. [Look to Me, Faith; and look to my Faith, G O D:] Textual Introducation Textual Apparatus To the Countesse of Bedford Sister to the Lord Harrington [Madame, I have learned by those lowes] Obsequyes vpon the Lord Harrington the last that dyed. [Fayre Soule, which wast not onely, as all Soules bee,] Textual Introduction Textual Appartus for Letter and Poem To Sir Robert Carr. [Sir, I presume you rather trye what you can doe] A Hymne to the Saynts and To the Marquesse Hamilton. [Whether the soule that now comes vp to you] Textual Introduction Textual Apparatus for Letter and Poem Appendix: Elegie. [Death bee not proude, they hand gaue not this blowe] Commentary The Anniversaries General Commentary Dating and Early Printings Donne, the Drurys, and Patronage "She" The Poet and His Audience Genres and Traditions Struture Language and Style The Anniversaries and Other Works Notes and Glosses on The First Anniuersarie. Notes and Glosses on A Fvnerall Elegie. Notes and Glosses on The Second Anniuersarie. The Epicedes and Obsequies General Commentary Commentary of Elegia. Notes and Glosses on Elegia. Commentary on An Elegie vpon the death of the Ladie Marckam. Notes and Glosses on An Elegie vpon the death of the Ladie Marcham. Commentary on An Elegie vpon the death of Mrs. Bulstrod. Notes and Glosses on An Elegie vpon the death of Mrs. Bulstrod. Commentary on Elegie vpon the death of Mrs. Boulstred. Notes and Glosses on Elegei vpon the death of Mrs. Boulstred. Commentary on Eletgie On the vntimely Death of the incomparable Prince, Henry. Commentary of Obsequyes vpon the Lord Harrington the last that dyed. Notes and Glosses on Obsequyes vpon the Lord Harrington the last that dyed. Commentary on A Hymne to the Saynts and to the Marquesse Hamilton. Notes and Glosses on A Hymne to the Saynts and to the Marquesse Hamilton. Works Cited Index of Authors Cited in the Commentary Index of Titles Index of First Lines About the Editors