All this points to the _Elegie_ in
question
being older than 1617.
John Donne
(2) The position which it occupies in
_1633_ is due to its position in the MS. from which it was printed.
Now in _D_, _H49_, _Lec_, and in _W_, it is included among the
_Elegies_, i. e. Love Elegies. But in the last of these, _W_, it
appears with a collection of poems (Satyres, Elegies, the Lincoln's
Inn Epithalamium, and a series of letters to Donne's early friends)
which has the appearance of being, or being derived from, an early
collection, a collection of poems written between 1597 and 1608 to
1610 at the latest. (3) The poem is contained, but again without any
title, in _HN_, the Hawthornden MS. in Edinburgh. Now we know that
Drummond was in London in 1610, and there is no poem, of those which
he transcribed from a collection of Donne's, that is demonstrably
later than 1609, though the two _Obsequies_, 'Death, I recant' and
'Language, thou art too narrowe and too weak', must have been written
in that year. Drummond _may_ have been in London at some time between
1625 and 1630, during which years his movements are undetermined
(David Masson: _Drummond of Hawthornden_, ch. viii), but if he had
made a collection of Donne's poems at this later date it would have
been more complete, and would certainly have contained some of the
religious poems. At a later date he seems to have been given a copy of
the _Hymn to the Saints and to Marquesse Hamylton_, for a MS. of
this poem is catalogued among the books presented to the Edinburgh
University Library by Drummond. Unfortunately it has disappeared
or was never actually handed over. Most probably, Drummond's small
collection of poems by Donne, Pembroke, Roe, Hoskins, Rudyerd, and
other 'wits' of King James's reign, now in the library of the Society
of Antiquaries, was made in 1610.
All this points to the _Elegie_ in question being older than 1617. It
is very unlikely that a poem on the death of his great early patron
would have been allowed by him to circulate without anything to
indicate in whose honour it was written. Egerton was as great a man
as Lord Harington or Marquis Hamilton, and if hope of reward from the
living was the efficient cause of these poems quite as much as sorrow
for the dead, Lord Ellesmere too left distinguished and wealthy
successors. Yet the MS. of Donne's poems which belonged to the first
Earl of Bridgewater contains this poem without any indication to whom
it was addressed.
In 1610 Donne sent to the Lord Chancellor a copy of his
_Pseudo-Martyr_, and the following hitherto unpublished letter shows
in what high esteem he held him:
'As Ryvers though in there Course they are content to serve publique
uses, yett there end is to returne into the Sea from whence they
issued. So, though I should have much Comfort that thys Booke might
give contentment to others, yet my Direct end in ytt was, to make it a
testimony of my gratitude towards your Lordship and an acknowledgement
that those poore sparks of Vnderstandinge or Judgement which are in
mee were derived and kindled from you and owe themselves to you. All
good that ys in ytt, your Lordship may be pleased to accept as yours;
and for the Errors I cannot despayre of your pardon since you have
long since pardond greater faults in mee. '
If Donne had written an _Elegie_ on the death of Lord Ellesmere it
would have been as formally dedicated to his memory as his Elegies to
Lord Harington and Lord Hamilton. But by 1617 he was in orders. His
Muse had in the long poem on Lord Harington, brother to the Countess
of Bedford, 'spoke, and spoke her last'. It was only at the express
instance of Sir Robert Carr that he composed in 1625 his lines on the
death of the Marquis of Hamilton, and he entitled it not an Elegy but
_A Hymn to the Saints and to Marquesse Hamylton_.
It seems to me probable that the _Elegie_, 'Sorrow, who to this
house', was an early and tentative experiment in this kind of poetry,
on the death of some one, we cannot now say whom, perhaps the father
of the Woodwards or some other of his earlier correspondents and
friends.
The _Elegie_ headed _Death_ is also printed in a somewhat puzzling
fashion. In _1633_ it follows the lyrics abruptly with the bald
title _Elegie_. It is not in _D_, _H49_, _Lec_, nor was it in the MS.
_1633_ is due to its position in the MS. from which it was printed.
Now in _D_, _H49_, _Lec_, and in _W_, it is included among the
_Elegies_, i. e. Love Elegies. But in the last of these, _W_, it
appears with a collection of poems (Satyres, Elegies, the Lincoln's
Inn Epithalamium, and a series of letters to Donne's early friends)
which has the appearance of being, or being derived from, an early
collection, a collection of poems written between 1597 and 1608 to
1610 at the latest. (3) The poem is contained, but again without any
title, in _HN_, the Hawthornden MS. in Edinburgh. Now we know that
Drummond was in London in 1610, and there is no poem, of those which
he transcribed from a collection of Donne's, that is demonstrably
later than 1609, though the two _Obsequies_, 'Death, I recant' and
'Language, thou art too narrowe and too weak', must have been written
in that year. Drummond _may_ have been in London at some time between
1625 and 1630, during which years his movements are undetermined
(David Masson: _Drummond of Hawthornden_, ch. viii), but if he had
made a collection of Donne's poems at this later date it would have
been more complete, and would certainly have contained some of the
religious poems. At a later date he seems to have been given a copy of
the _Hymn to the Saints and to Marquesse Hamylton_, for a MS. of
this poem is catalogued among the books presented to the Edinburgh
University Library by Drummond. Unfortunately it has disappeared
or was never actually handed over. Most probably, Drummond's small
collection of poems by Donne, Pembroke, Roe, Hoskins, Rudyerd, and
other 'wits' of King James's reign, now in the library of the Society
of Antiquaries, was made in 1610.
All this points to the _Elegie_ in question being older than 1617. It
is very unlikely that a poem on the death of his great early patron
would have been allowed by him to circulate without anything to
indicate in whose honour it was written. Egerton was as great a man
as Lord Harington or Marquis Hamilton, and if hope of reward from the
living was the efficient cause of these poems quite as much as sorrow
for the dead, Lord Ellesmere too left distinguished and wealthy
successors. Yet the MS. of Donne's poems which belonged to the first
Earl of Bridgewater contains this poem without any indication to whom
it was addressed.
In 1610 Donne sent to the Lord Chancellor a copy of his
_Pseudo-Martyr_, and the following hitherto unpublished letter shows
in what high esteem he held him:
'As Ryvers though in there Course they are content to serve publique
uses, yett there end is to returne into the Sea from whence they
issued. So, though I should have much Comfort that thys Booke might
give contentment to others, yet my Direct end in ytt was, to make it a
testimony of my gratitude towards your Lordship and an acknowledgement
that those poore sparks of Vnderstandinge or Judgement which are in
mee were derived and kindled from you and owe themselves to you. All
good that ys in ytt, your Lordship may be pleased to accept as yours;
and for the Errors I cannot despayre of your pardon since you have
long since pardond greater faults in mee. '
If Donne had written an _Elegie_ on the death of Lord Ellesmere it
would have been as formally dedicated to his memory as his Elegies to
Lord Harington and Lord Hamilton. But by 1617 he was in orders. His
Muse had in the long poem on Lord Harington, brother to the Countess
of Bedford, 'spoke, and spoke her last'. It was only at the express
instance of Sir Robert Carr that he composed in 1625 his lines on the
death of the Marquis of Hamilton, and he entitled it not an Elegy but
_A Hymn to the Saints and to Marquesse Hamylton_.
It seems to me probable that the _Elegie_, 'Sorrow, who to this
house', was an early and tentative experiment in this kind of poetry,
on the death of some one, we cannot now say whom, perhaps the father
of the Woodwards or some other of his earlier correspondents and
friends.
The _Elegie_ headed _Death_ is also printed in a somewhat puzzling
fashion. In _1633_ it follows the lyrics abruptly with the bald
title _Elegie_. It is not in _D_, _H49_, _Lec_, nor was it in the MS.
