By
that late learned and Reverend Divine John Donne, D^r in Divinity, and
Deane of S.
that late learned and Reverend Divine John Donne, D^r in Divinity, and
Deane of S.
John Donne
Sanford Terry:
[Illustration: musical notation
A - - - men. ]
PAGE =370=, ll. 7-8. _that sinne which I have wonne
Others to sinn? &c. _
In a powerful sermon on Matthew xxi. 44, Donne enumerates this among
the curses that will overwhelm the sinner: 'There shall fall upon him
those sinnes which he hath done after anothers dehortation, and those,
which others have done after his provocation. ' _Sermons_ 50. 35. 319.
ELEGIES UPON THE AUTHOR.
The first and third of these _Elegies_, those by King and Hyde, were
affixed, without any signature, to _Deaths Duell, or A Consolation to
the Soule, against the dying Life, and living Death of the Body. . . .
By
that late learned and Reverend Divine John Donne, D^r in Divinity, and
Deane of S. Pauls, London. Being his last Sermon, and called by his
Maiesties houshold_ THE DOCTORS OWNE FVNERALL SERMON. _London, Printed
by Thomas Harper, for Richard Redmer and Beniamin Fisher, and are to
be sold at the signe of the Talbot in Alders-gate street. _ 1632. The
book was entered in the Stationers' Register to Beniamin Fisher and
Richard Redmer on the 30th of September, 1631, and was issued with a
dedicatory letter by Redmer to his sister 'M^{rs} Elizabeth Francis of
Brumsted in Norff' and a note 'To the Reader' signed 'R'. Now we know
from his own statement that King was Donne's executor and had been
entrusted with his sermons which at King's 'restless importunity'
Donne had prepared for the press. (Letter, dated 1664, prefixed to
Walton's _Lives_, 1670. ) The sermons and papers thus consigned to King
were taken from him later at the instance apparently of Donne's son.
But the presence of King's epitaph in this edition of _Deaths Duell_
seems to show that he was responsible for, or at any rate permitted,
the issue of the sermon by Redmer and Fisher. The reappearance of
these Elegies signed, and accompanied by a number of others, suggests
in like manner that King _may_ have been the editor behind Marriot
of the _Poems_ in 1633. This would help to account for the general
excellence of the text of that edition, for King, a poet himself as
well as an intimate friend, was better fitted to edit Donne's poems
than the gentle and pious Walton, who was less in sympathy with the
side of Donne which his poetry reveals.
Of Henry King (1591-1669) poet, 'florid preacher', canon of Christ
Church, dean of Rochester, and in 1641 Bishop of Chichester it
is unnecessary to say more here. A fresh edition of his poems by
Professor Saintsbury is in preparation and will show how worthy a
disciple he was of Donne as love-poet, eulogist, and religious poet.
Probably the finest of his poems is _The Surrender_.
It was to King also that Redmer was indebted for the frontispiece to
_Deaths Duell_, the picture of Donne in his shroud, reproduced in the
first volume.
