No More Learning

Apparently it proved a
favourite.

When one turns from the poems attributed to Donne in the old editions
to those which some of the more recent editors have added, one
launches into a sea which I have no intention of attempting to
navigate in its entirety. Both Sir John Simeon and Dr. Grosart were
disposed to cry 'Eureka' too readily, and assigned to Donne a number
of poems culled from various manuscripts for the genuineness of which
there is no evidence external or internal. I shall confine my remarks
to the few poems I have myself incorporated for the first time in an
edition of Donne's poems; to the Song 'Absence hear my protestation',
which it is now the fashion to ascribe to Donne absolutely, letting
evidence 'go hang'; and to the four poems which Mr. Chambers printed
from _A25_. I have added some more in my Appendix C, because they are
interesting [Greek: adespota] illustrative of the influence in
seventeenth-century poetry of Donne's realistic passion and his
paradoxical wit.

Of the poems which appear here for the first time in a collected
edition, it is not necessary to say much of those which are taken from
_W_, the Westmoreland MS. now in the possession of Mr. Gosse, who with
the greatest and most spontaneous kindness has permitted me to print
them all. These include two Epigrams, four additional Letters, and
three Holy Sonnets. The Epigrams, the Holy Sonnets, and two of the
Letters have been already printed by Mr. Gosse in his _Life of John
Donne_, 1899. There can be no doubt of their genuineness. They enlarge
a series of Letters and a series of Sonnets which appear in _1633_ and
in all the best manuscript collections.
In their arrangement I have
followed _W_ in preference to _1633_, which is based on _A18_, _N_,
_TC_. Of the letter taken from the Burley MS. there may be greater
doubt in some minds. To me it seems unquestionably Donne's (aut Donne
aut Diabolus), an addition to the series of letters which he wrote
to Sir Henry Wotton between the return of the Islands Expedition and
Essex's return from Ireland. The Burley MS. is a commonplace-book
of Wotton's and includes poems which we know as Donne's, e. g. 'Come,
Madam, come'; some of his Paradoxes with a covering letter; other
letters which from their substance and style seem to be Donne's; and a
number of poems, including this which alone of all the doubtful poems
in the manuscript is initialled 'J. D. ' The manuscript contains work
by Donne. Does this come under that head? Only internal evidence can
decide. Of the other poems in the manuscript, most of which I print in
Appendix C, none are certainly Donne's.

'Absence heare my protestation' was printed in Donne's lifetime
in Davison's _A Poetical Rhapsody_ (1602, 1608, 1621), but with no
reference to Donne's authorship, although his name was yearly growing
a more popular hostel for wandering, unclaimed poems. [18] It was not
printed in any edition of his poems from _1633_ to _1719_. It is not
found in either of the most trustworthy manuscript collections, _D_,
_H49_, _Lec_, or _A18_, _N_, _TC_.