The 1633 edition bears more evidence of
competent
editing
by one who knew and understood Donne's poems than any later
edition.
by one who knew and understood Donne's poems than any later
edition.
John Donne
Since all the speech of light is less than it.
An eye to that is still the best of witt.
And nothing can express, for truth or haste
So happily, a sweetnes as our taste.
W^ch thought at once instructed me in this
Safe way to prayse him, and yo^r hands to kisse.
Affectionately y^rs
J. V.
tu longe sequere et vestigia
semper adora
Vaughani
The name at the foot of the Latin line, scribbled at the
bottom of the page, seems to identify J. V. with a Vaughan,
probably John Vaughan (1603-74) who was a Christ Church man.
In 1630 (_D. N. B. _) he was a barrister at the Inner Temple, and
a friend of Selden. He took an active part in politics later,
and in 1668 was created Sir John Vaughan and appointed Chief
Justice of the Common Pleas. ]
[Footnote 10: I am inclined to believe that Henry King, the
poet, and later Bishop of Chichester, assisted the printer.
The 1633 edition bears more evidence of competent editing
by one who knew and understood Donne's poems than any later
edition. See p. 255. ]
[Footnote 11: Professor Norton (Grolier Club edition, i,
p. xxxviii) states that the _Epistle Dedicatory_ and the
_Epigram_ by Jonson are omitted in this edition. This is an
error, perhaps due to the two pages having been torn out of
or omitted in the copy he consulted. They are in the Christ
Church, Oxford, copy which I have used. ]
[Footnote 12: In 1779 Donne's poems were included in Bell's
_Poets of Great Britain_. The poems were grouped in an
eccentric fashion and the text is a reprint of _1719_. In
1793 Donne's poems were reissued in a _Complete Edition of the
Poets of Great Britain_, published by Arthur Arch, London, and
Bell and Bradfute, Edinburgh, under the editorship of Robert
Anderson. The text and arrangement of the poems show that this
is a reprint of Bell's edition. The same is true of the text,
so far as I have checked it, in Chalmers's _English Poets_,
vol. v, 1810. But in the arrangement of the poems the editor
has recurred to the edition of 1669, and has reprinted some
poems from that source. Southey printed selections from
Donne's poems in his _Select Works of the British Poets from
Chaucer to Jonson_ (1831). The text is that of _1669_.
