ll. 19-22. As punctuated in the old editions these lines are somewhat ambiguous:

Chambers and the Grolier Club editor, by putting a full stop or semi-colon after 'the cause being in me', connect these words with what precedes. This makes the first two lines verbose ('the cause being in me' repeating 'because I'am cold') and the last two obscure. I regard 'the cause being in me' as an explanatory participial phrase qualifying what follows. 'My Muse divorc'd me because of my coldness. The cause of this divorce, coldness, being in me, the divorced one, I lack not only the will but the power to contract a new marriage'. I have therefore, following W, placed a colon after 'selfe'.

Page 213. To M^r I. L.

l. 2. My Sun is with you. Here, as in the letter 'To Mr. C. B.' (p. 208), reference is made to some lady whose 'servant' Donne is. See the note to that poem and the quotation from Sir Henry Wotton. It seems to me most probable that the person referred to was neither Ann More nor any predecessor of her in Donne's affections, but some noble lady to whom the poet stood in the attitude of dependence masking itself in love which Spenser occupied towards Lady Carey, and so many other poets towards their patronesses. But in regard to all the references in these letters we can only grope in darkness. As Professor Saintsbury would say, we do not really know to whom one of the letters was addressed.

Page 214, ll. 11-12. These lines from W make the sense more complete and the transition to the closing invocation less abrupt. 'Sacrifice my heart to that beauteous Sunne; and since being with her you are in Paradise where joy admits of no addition, think of me at the sacrifice'; and then begins the prayer to his friend as an interceding saint. See note to p. 24, l. 22.

The lines seem to have been dropped, not in printing, but at some stage in transcription, for I have found them in no MS. but W.

l. 20. Thy Sonne ne'r Ward: i.e. 'May thy son never become a royal ward, to be handed over to the guardianship of some courtier who will plunder his estate.' Sir John Roe's father, in his will, begs his wife to procure the wardship of his son that he be not utterly ruined.

The series of letters which this to Mr. I. L. closes was probably written during the years 1597 to 1608 or 1610. Donne's first Letters were The Storme and The Calme. These were followed by Letters to Wotton before and after he went to Ireland, and this series continues them during the years of Donne's secretaryship and his subsequent residence at Pyrford and Mitcham. They are written to friends of his youth, some still at college. Clearly too, what we have preserved is Donne's side of a mutual correspondence. Of Letters to Donne I have printed one, probably from Thomas Woodward. Chance has preserved another probably in the form in which it was sent. Mr. Gosse has printed it (Life, &c., i, p. 91). I reproduce it from the original MS., Tanner 306, in the Bodleian Library:

The writer is, Mr. Gosse says, Sir William Cornwallis, the eldest son of Sir Charles Cornwallis of Beeston-in-Sprouston, Norfolk. Like Wotton, Goodyere, Roe, and others of Donne's circle he followed Essex to Ireland and was knighted at Dublin in 1599. The letter probably dates from 1600 or 1601. I have reproduced the original spelling, which is remarkable.

This letter and that to Mr. E. G. show that Donne was a frequenter of the theatre in these interesting years, 1593 to 1610, the greatest dramatic era since the age of Pericles. Sir Richard Baker, in his Chronicle of the Kings of England (1730, p. 424), recalls his 'Old Acquaintance ... Mr. John Dunne, who leaving Oxford, liv'd at the Inns of Court, not dissolute but very neat: a great Visiter of Ladies, a great Frequenter of Plays, a great Writer of conceited Verses'. But of the Elizabethan drama there is almost no echo in Donne's poetry. The theatres are an amusement for idle hours: 'Because I am drousie, I will be kept awake with the obscenities and scurrilities of a Comedy, or the drums and ejulations of a Tragedy.' Sermons 80. 38. 383.

Page 214. To Sir H. W. at his going Ambassador to Venice.

Page 215, ll. 21-4. To sweare much love, &c. The meaning of this verse, accepting the 1633 text, is: 'Admit this honest paper to swear much love,—a love that will not change until with your elevation to the peerage (or increasing eminence) it must be called honour rather than love.' (We honour, not love, those who are high above us.) 'But when that time comes I shall not more honour your fortune, the rank that fortune gives you, than I have honoured your honour ["nobleness of mind, scorn of meanness, magnanimity" (Johnson)], your high character, magnanimity, without it, i.e. when yet unhonoured.' Donne plays on the word 'honour'.

Walton's version, and the slight variant of this in 1635-69, give a different thought, and this is perhaps the correct reading, more probably either another (perhaps an earlier) version of the poet or an attempt to correct due to a failure to catch the meaning of the rather fanciful phrase 'honouring your honour'. The meaning is, 'I shall not then more honour your fortune than I have your wit while it was still unhonoured, or (1635-69) unennobled.' The 1633 version seems to me the more likely to be the correct or final form of the text, because a reference to character rather than 'wit' or intellectual ability is implied by the following verse:

This stress on character, too, and indifference to fortune, is quite in the vein of Donne's and Wotton's earlier verse correspondence and all Wotton's poetry.

For the distinction between love and honour compare Lyly's Endimion, v. iii. 150-80:

'Cinthia. Was there such a time when as for my love thou did'st vow thyself to death, and in respect of it loth'd thy life? Speake Endimion, I will not revenge it with hate ...

Endimion. My unspotted thoughts, my languishing bodie, my discontented life, let them obtaine by princelie favour that, which to challenge they must not presume, onelie wishing of impossibilities: with imagination of which I will spend my spirits, and to myselfe that no creature may heare, softlie call it love. And if any urge to utter what I whisper, then will I name it honor....

  ... Cinthia. Endimion, this honourable respect of thine, shalbe christened love in thee, and my reward for it favor.'

With the lines,

compare in the same play:

'O Endimion, Tellus was faire, but what availeth Beautie without wisdom? Nay, Endimion, she was wise, but what availeth wisdom without honour? She was honourable, Endimion, belie her not. I, but how obscure is honour without fortune?' II. iii. 11-17.

The antithesis here between 'honour' and 'fortune' is exactly that which Donne makes.

If we may accept 'noble-wanting-wit' as Donne's own phrase (and Walton's authority pleads for it) and interpret it as 'wit that yet wants ennoblement' it forms an interesting parallel to a phrase of Shakespeare's in Macbeth, when Banquo addresses the witches:

Some editors refer 'present grace' to the first salutation, 'Thane of Glamis'. This is unlikely as there is nothing startling in a salutation to which Macbeth was already entitled. The Clarendon Press editors refer the line, more probably, to the two prophecies, 'thane of Cawdor' and 'that shalt be King hereafter'. The word 'having' is then not quite the same as in the phrases 'my having is not great', &c., which these editors quote, but is simply opposed to 'hope'. You greet him with 'nobility in possession', with 'royalty in expectation', as being already thane of Cawdor, as to be king hereafter. Shakespeare's 'noble having' is the opposite of Donne's 'noble wanting'.

One is tempted to put, as Chambers does, an emphasizing comma after 'honour' as well as 'fortune'; but the antithesis is between 'fortune' and 'honour wanting fortune'.

'Sir Philip Sidney is none of this number; for the greatness which he affected was built upon true Worth, esteeming Fame more than Riches, and Noble actions far above Nobility it self.' Fulke Greville's Life of Sidney, c. iii. p. 38 (Tudor and Stuart Library).

Page 216. To M^rs M. H.

Page 218. To the Countesse of Bedford.

l. 13. Care not then, Madam,'how low your praysers lye. I cannot but think that the 'praysers' of the MSS. is preferable to the 'prayses' of the editions. It is difficult to construe or make unambiguous sense of 'how low your prayses lie'. Donne does not wish to suggest that the praise is poor in itself, but that the giver is a 'low person'. The word 'prayser' he has already used in a letter to the Countess (p. 200), and there also it has caused some trouble to editors and copyists.

Grosart and the Grolier Club editor punctuate these lines so as to connect 'But one' with what precedes.

I suppose 'death' in this reading is to be regarded as the one cloud which the radiation of the Countess cannot dispel. There is no indication, however, that this is the thought in Donne's mind. As punctuated (i.e. with a comma after 'subdue', which I have strengthened to a semicolon), 'But one' goes with what follows, and refers to God: 'Excepting God only, you are the most illuminating object we can contemplate.'

Page 219, l. 27. May in your through-shine front your hearts thoughts see. All the MSS. agree in reading 'your hearts thoughts', which is obviously correct. N, O'F, and TCD give the line otherwise exactly as in the editions. B drops the 'shine' after 'through'; and S96 reads:

Donne has used 'through-shine' already in 'A Valediction: of my name in the window':

If there were any evidence that Donne was, as in this lyric, playing with the idea of the identity of different souls, there would be reason to retain the 'our hearts thoughts' of the editions; but there is no trace of this. He is dwelling simply on the thought of the Countess's transparency. Donne is fond of compounds with 'through'. Other examples are 'through-light', 'through-swome', 'through-vaine', 'through-pierc'd'.

ll. 36-7. They fly not, &c. Chambers and the Grolier Club editor have here injured the sense by altering the punctuation. 'Nature's first lesson' does not complete the previous statement about the relation of the different souls, but qualifies 'discretion'. 'Just as the souls of growth and sense do not claim precedence of the rational soul, so the first lesson taught us by Nature, viz. discretion, must not grudge a place to zeal.' 'Anima rationalis est perfectior quam sensibilis, et sensibilis quam vegetabilis,' Aquinas, Summa, ii. 57. 2.

Page 220, l. 46. In those poor types, &c. The use of the circle as an emblem of infinity is very old. 'To the mystically inclined the perpendicular was the emblem of unswerving rectitude and purity; but the circle, "the foremost, richest, and most perfect of curves" was the symbol of completeness and eternity, of the endless process of generation and renascence in which all things are ever becoming new.' W. B. Frankland, The Story of Euclid, p. 70. God was described by St. Bonaventura as 'a circle whose centre is everywhere, whose circumference nowhere'. See also supplementary note.

Page 221. A Letter to the Lady Carey, and M^rs Essex Riche, from Amyens.

Page 222, l. 14. where no one is growne or spent. Like the stars in the firmament your virtues neither grow nor decay. According to Aquinas the heavenly bodies are neither temporal nor eternal; not temporal because they are subject neither to growth nor decay; not eternal because they change their position. They are 'Aeonical', their life is measured by ages.

l. 19. humilitie has such general support that the 'humidity' of 1669 seems to be merely a conjecture.

Page 224. To the Countesse of Salisbury. 1614.

Catharine Howard, daughter of Thomas, first Earl of Suffolk, married in 1608 William Cecil, second Earl of Salisbury, son of the greater earl and grandson of Burghley, 'whose wisdom and virtues died with them, and their children only inherited their titles'. Clarendon.

It is not impossible, considering the date of this letter, that the Countess of Salisbury may be 'the Countesse' referred to in Donne's letter to Goodyere quoted in my introduction on the canon of Donne's poems. There is a difficulty in applying to the Countess of Huntingdon the words 'that knowledge which she hath of me, was in the beginning of a graver course, then of a Poet'. Letters, &c., p. 103. Donne made the acquaintance of Lady Elizabeth Stanley when he was Sir Thomas Egerton's secretary. She must have known him as a wit before his graver days. Nor would he have apologized for writing to such an old friend whose prophet he had been in her younger days.

The punctuation of this poem repays careful study. The whole is a fine example of that periodic style, drawn out from line to line, and forming sonorous and impressive verse-paragraphs, in which Donne more than any other poet anticipated Milton. The first sentence closes only at the thirty-sixth line. The various clauses which lead up to the close are separated from one another by the full-stop (ll. 8, 24), the colon (ll. 2, 7 (sonnets:), 34), and the semicolon (ll. 18, 21, 30 where the old edition had a colon), all with distinct values. The only change I have made (and recorded) is at l. 30 (fantasticall), where a careful consideration of the punctuation throughout shows that a semicolon is more appropriate than a colon. The clause which begins with 'Since' in l. 25 does not close till l. 34, 'understood'.

In the rest of the poem the punctuation is also careful. The only changes I have made are—ll. 42 'that day;' and 46 'yesterday;' (a semi-colon for a colon in each case), 61 'mee:' (a colon for a full stop), and 63 'good;' (a semicolon for a comma).

Page 227. To the Lady Bedford.

AN ANATOMIE OF THE WORLD.

The Anatomie of the World and Of The Progresse of the Soule were the first poems published in Donne's lifetime. The former was issued in 1611. It is exceedingly rare. The copy preserved in Lord Ellesmere's library at Bridgewater House is a small octavo volume of 26 pages (Praise of the Dead, &c. 3 pp., Anatomy 19 pp., and Funerall Elegie 4 pp., all unnumbered), with title-page as given on the page opposite.

In 1612 the poem was reissued along with the Second Anniversary. A copy of this rare volume was sold at the Huth sale on the thirteenth of June this year. With the kind permission of Mr. Edward Huth and Messrs. Sotheby, Mr. Godfrey Keynes made a careful collation for me, the results of which are embodied in my notes. The separate title-pages of the two poems which the volume contains are here reproduced.

Mr. Keynes supplies the following description of the volume: A first title, A-A4 To the praise of the Dead (in italics), A5-D2 (pp. 1-44) The First Anniversary (in roman), D3-D7 (pp. 45-54) A funerall Elegie (in italics), D8 blank except for rules in margins; E1 second title, E2-E4 recto The Harbinger (in italics), E4 verso blank, E5-H5 recto (pp. 1-49) The Second Anniversarie (in roman), H5 verso—H6 blank except for rules in margins. A fresh title-page introduces the second poem.

In 1611 the introductory verses entitled To the praise of the Dead, and the Anatomy, and the Anatomy itself, are printed in italic, A Funerall Elegie following in roman type. This latter arrangement was reversed in 1612. In the second part, only the poem entitled The Harbinger to the Progresse is printed throughout in italic. Donne's own poem is in roman type.

The reason of the variety of arrangement is, I suppose, this: The Funerall Elegie was probably, as Chambers suggests, the first part of the poem, composed probably in 1610. When it was published in 1611 with the Anatomie, the latter was regarded as introductory and subordinate to the Elegie, and accordingly was printed in italic. Later, when the idea of the Anniversary poems emerged, and Of The Progresse of the Soule was written as a complement to An Anatomy of the World, these became the prominent parts of the whole work in honour of Elizabeth Drury, and the Funerall Elegie fell into the subordinate position.

The edition of 1612 does not strike one as a very careful piece of printing. It was probably printed while Donne was on the Continent. It supplies only two certain emendations of the later text.

The reprints of this volume made in 1621 and 1625 show increasing carelessness. They were issued after Donne took orders and probably without his sanction. The title-pages of the editions are here reproduced.

AN
ANATOMY
of the World.

WHEREIN,

BY OCCASION OF

the vntimely death of Mistris

Elizabeth Drvry

the frailty and the decay
of this whole world
is represented.

LONDON,

Printed for Samuel Macham.
and are to be solde at his shop in
Paules Church-yard, at the
signe of the Bul-head.

An. Dom.

1611.

Title Page

The First Anniuersarie.

AN
ANATOMY
of the VVorld.

Wherein,

By Occasion Of

the vntimely death of Mistris

Elizabeth Drvry

the frailtie and the decay
of this whole world
is represented.

LONDON,

Printed by M. Bradwood for S. Macham, and are
to be sold at his shop in Pauls Church-yard at the
signe of the Bull-head.    1612.

Title Page

The Second Anniuersarie.

OF

THE PROGRES
of the Soule.

Wherein:

By Occasion Of The

Religious death of Mistris

Elizabeth Drvry

the incommodities of the Soule
in this life and her exaltation in
the next, are Contem-
plated.

London,

Printed by M. Bradwood for S. Macham, and are
to be sould at his shop in Pauls Church-yard at
the signe of the Bull-head.
1612.

Title Page

The above title is not an exact facsimile.

The First Anniuersarie.

AN
ANATOMY
of the World.

Wherein,

By Occasion Of

the vntimely death of Mistris

Elizabeth Drvry
the frailtie and the decay
of this whole world
is represented.

London,

Printed by A. Mathewes for Tho: Dewe, and are
to be sold at his shop in Saint Dunstons Church-yard in
Fleetestreete.   1621.

Title Page

The second Anniuersarie.

OF

THE PROGRES
of the Soule.

Wherein,

By Occasion Of

the Religious death of Mistris

Elizabeth Drvry

the incommodities of the Soule
in this life and her exaltation in
the next, are Contem-
plated.

London,

Printed by A. Mathewes for Tho: Dewe, and are
to be sold at his shop in Saint Dunstons Church-yard
in Fleetestreete. 1621.

Title Page

AN
ANATOMY
OF THE
World.

Wherein,

By Occasion Of the vn-
timely death of Mistris

Elizabeth Drvry
the frailtie and the decay
of this whole world is
represented.

The first Anniuersarie.

London

Printed by W. Stansby for Tho. Dewe,
and are to be sold in S. Dunstanes
Church-yard.   1625

Title Page

OF

THE PROGRES
of the
SOVLE

Wherein,

By Occasion Of The Re-
ligious death of Mistris

Elizabeth Drvry
the incommodities of the Soule in
this life, and her exaltation in the
next, are Contemplated.

The Second Anniuersarie.

LONDON

Printed by W. Stansby for Tho. Dewe,
and are to be sold in S. Dunstanes
Church-yard.   1625.

Title Page

The symbolic figures in the title-pages of 1625 probably represent the seven Liberal Arts. A feature of the editions of 1611, 1612, and 1625 is the marginal notes. These are reproduced in 1633, but a little carelessly, for some copies do not contain them all. They are omitted in the subsequent editions.

The text of the Anniversaries in 1633 has been on the whole carefully edited. It is probable, judging from several small circumstances (e.g. the omission of the first marginal note even in copies where all the rest are given), that 1633 was printed from 1625, but it is clear that the editor compared this with earlier editions, probably those of 1611-12, and corrected or amended the punctuation throughout. My collation of 1633 with 1611 has throughout vindicated the former as against 1621-5 on the one hand and the later editions on the other.¹ Of mistakes other than of punctuation I have noted only three: l. 181, thoughts 1611-12; thought 1621-33. This was corrected, from the obvious sense, in later editions (1635-69), and Grosart, Chambers, and Grolier make no note of the error in 1621-33. l. 318, proportions 1611-12; proportion 1621 and all subsequent editions without comment. l. 415, Impressions 1611; Impression 1612-25: impression 1633 and all subsequent editions. All three cases are examples of the same error, the dropping of final 's'.

In typographical respects 1611 shows the hand of the author more clearly than the later editions. Donne was fastidious in matters of punctuation and the use of italics and capital letters, witness the LXXX Sermons (1640), printed from MSS. prepared for the press by the author. But the printer had to be reckoned with, and perfection was not obtainable. In a note to one of the separately published sermons Donne says: 'Those Errors which are committed in mispointing, or in changing the form of the Character, will soone be discernd, and corrected by the Eye of any deliberate Reader'. The 1611 text shows a more consistent use in certain passages of emphasizing capitals, and at places its punctuation is better than that of 1633. My text reproduces 1633, corrected where necessary from the earlier editions; and I have occasionally followed the typography of 1611. But every case in which 1633 is modified is recorded.

Of the Second Anniversarie, in like manner, my text is that of 1633, corrected in a few details, and with a few typographical features borrowed, from the edition of 1612. The editor of 1633 had rather definite views of his own on punctuation, notably a predilection for semicolons in place of full stops. The only certain emendations which 1612 supplies are in the marginal note at p. 234 and in l. 421 of the Second Anniversarie 'this' for 'his'. The spelling is less ambiguous in ll. 27 and 326.

¹ 1621-25 abound in misplaced full stops which are not in 1611 and are generally corrected in 1633. The punctuation of the later editions (1635-69) is the work of the printer. Occasionally a comma is dropped or introduced with advantage to the sense, but in general the punctuation grows increasingly careless. Often the correction of one error leads to another.

The subject of the Anniversaries was the fifteen-year-old Elizabeth Drury, who died in 1610. Her father, Sir Robert Drury, of Hawsted in the county of Suffolk, was a man of some note on account of his great wealth. He was knighted by Essex when about seventeen years old, at the siege of Rouen (1591-2). He served in the Low Countries, and at the battle of Nieuport (1600) brought off Sir Francis Vere when his horse was shot under him. He was courtier, traveller, member of Parliament, and in 1613 would have been glad to go as Ambassador to Paris when Sir Thomas Overbury refused the proffered honour and was sent to the Tower. Lady Drury was the daughter of Sir Nicholas Bacon, the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth's Lord Keeper. She and her brother, Sir Edmund Bacon, were friends and patrons of Joseph Hall, Donne's rival as an early satirist. From 1600 to 1608 Hall was rector of Hawsted, and though he was not very kindly treated by Sir Robert he dedicated to him his Meditations Morall and Divine. This tie explains the fact, which we learn from Jonson's conversations with Drummond, that Hall is the author of the Harbinger to the Progresse. As he wrote this we may infer that he is also responsible for To the praise of the dead, and the Anatomie.

Readers of Donne's Life by Walton are aware of the munificence with which Sir Robert rewarded Donne for his poems, how he opened his house to him, and took him abroad. Donne's letters, on the other hand, reveal that the poem gave considerable offence to the Countess of Bedford and other older patrons and friends. In his letters to Gerrard he endeavoured to explain away his eulogies. In verse-letters to the Countess of Bedford and others he atoned for his inconstancy by subtle and erudite compliments.

The Funerall Elegie was doubtless written in 1610 and sent to Sir Robert Drury. He and Donne may already have been acquainted through Wotton, who was closely related by friendship and marriage with Sir Edmund Bacon. (See Pearsall Smith, Life and Letters of Sir Henry Wotton (1907). The Anatomie of the World was composed in 1611, Of the Progresse of the Soule in France in 1612, at some time prior to the 14th of April, when he refers to his Anniversaries in a letter to George Gerrard.

Ben Jonson declared to Drummond 'That Donnes Anniversaries were profane and full of blasphemies: that he told Mr. Done if it had been written of the Virgin Marie it had been something; to which he answered that he described the Idea of a Woman, and not as she was'. This is a better defence of Donne's poems than any which he advances in his letters, but it is not a complete description of his work. Rather, he interwove with a rapt and extravagantly conceited laudation of an ideal woman two topics familiar to his catholic and mediaeval learning, and developed each in a characteristically subtle and ingenious strain, a strain whose occasional sceptical, disintegrating reflections belong as obviously to the seventeenth century as the general content of the thought is mediaeval.

The burden of the whole is an impassioned and exalted meditatio mortis based on two themes common enough in mediaeval devotional literature—a De Contemptu Mundi, and a contemplation of the Glories of Paradise. A very brief analysis of the two poems, omitting the laudatory portions, may help a reader who cannot at once see the wood for the trees, and be better than detailed notes.

The Anatomie of the World.

l. 1. The world which suffered in her death is now fallen into the worse lethargy of oblivion. l. 60. I will anatomize the world for the benefit of those who still, by the influence of her virtue, lead a kind of glimmering life. l. 91. There is no health in the world. We are still under the curse of woman. l. 111. How short is our life compared with that of the patriarchs! l. 134. How small is our stature compared with that of the giants of old! l. 147. How shrunken of soul we are, especially since her death! l. 191. And as man, so is the whole world. The new learning or philosophy has shattered in fragments that complete scheme of the universe in which we rested so confidently, and (l. 211) in human society the same disorder prevails. l. 250. There is no beauty in the world, for, first, the beauty of proportion is lost, alike in the movements of the heavenly bodies, and (l. 285) in the earth with its mountains and hollows, and (l. 302) in the administration of justice in society. l. 339. So is Beauty's other element, Colour and Lustre. l. 377. Heaven and earth are at variance. We can no longer read terrestrial fortunes in the stars. But (l. 435) an Anatomy can be pushed too far.

The Progresse of the Soule.

l. 1. The world's life is the life that breeds in corruption. Let me, forgetting the rotten world, meditate on death. l. 85. Think, my soul, that thou art on thy death-bed, and consider death a release. l. 157. Think how the body poisoned the soul, tainting it with original sin. Set free, thou art in Heaven in a moment. l. 250. Here all our knowledge is ignorance. The new learning has thrown all in doubt. We sweat to learn trifles. In Heaven we know all we need to know. l. 321. Here, our converse is evil and corrupting. There our converse will be with Mary; the Patriarchs; Apostles, Martyrs and Virgins (compare A Litany). Here in the perpetual flux of things is no essential joy. Essential joy is to see God. And even the accidental joys of heaven surpass the essential joys of earth, were there such joys here where all is casual: