represent three or perhaps two
different
sources if _O'F_ and _S96_
are derived from a common original--(1) _A18_, _N_, _TC_, (2) _S96_,
(3) _O'F_.
are derived from a common original--(1) _A18_, _N_, _TC_, (2) _S96_,
(3) _O'F_.
John Donne
In 1617 George, Lord Carew,
writing to Sir Thomas Roe, Ambassador at the Court of the Mogul, says:
'The Hollanders have discovered to the southward of the Strayghts of
Magellen an open sea and free passage to the south sea. ' _Letters of
George, Lord Carew to Sir Thomas Roe_, Camden Society, 1860. For the
'Straight of Anyan' compare also:
This makes the foisting traveller to sweare,
And face out many a lie within the yeere.
And if he have beene an howre or two aboarde
To spew a little gall: then by the Lord,
He hath beene in both th'Indias, East and West,
Talks of Guiana, China, and the rest,
The straights of Gibraltare, and AEnian
Are but hard by; no, nor the Magellane:
Mandeville, Candish, sea-experienst Drake
Came never neere him, if he truly crake.
Gilpin, _Skialetheia_, Satyre I.
For 'AEnian' in this passage Grosart conjectures 'Aegean'! I have put a
semicolon for a comma in the third last line quoted. I take it and the
preceding to be a quotation from the traveller's talk.
PAGE =369=. A HYMNE TO GOD THE FATHER.
The text of the 1633 edition, which is, with one trifling exception,
that of the other printed editions, is followed by Walton in the first
short life of Donne prefixed to the _LXXX Sermons_ (1640). Walton
probably took it from one of the 1633, 1635, or 1639 editions; but he
may have had a copy of the poem. The MSS. which contain the hymn have
some important differences, and instead of noting these as variants
or making a patchwork text I have thought it best to print the poem
as given in _A18_, _N_, _O'F_, _S96_, _TCC_, _TCD_. The six MSS.
represent three or perhaps two different sources if _O'F_ and _S96_
are derived from a common original--(1) _A18_, _N_, _TC_, (2) _S96_,
(3) _O'F_. It is not likely, therefore, that their variants are simply
editorial emendations. In some respects their text seems to me to
improve on that of the printed editions.
_S96_ and _O'F_ differ from the third group in reading, at l. 5, 'I
have not done. ' On the other hand, _A18_ and _TC_ at l. 4 read 'do
them', and at l. 15 'this sunne' (probably a misreading of 'thie'). It
seems to me that the readings of l. 2 ('is'), l. 3 ('those sinnes'),
l. 7 ('by which I won'), and l. 15 ('Sweare by thyself') are
undoubtedly improvements, and in a text constructed on the principle
adopted by Mr. Bullen in his anthologies I should adopt them. Some of
the other readings, e. g.
writing to Sir Thomas Roe, Ambassador at the Court of the Mogul, says:
'The Hollanders have discovered to the southward of the Strayghts of
Magellen an open sea and free passage to the south sea. ' _Letters of
George, Lord Carew to Sir Thomas Roe_, Camden Society, 1860. For the
'Straight of Anyan' compare also:
This makes the foisting traveller to sweare,
And face out many a lie within the yeere.
And if he have beene an howre or two aboarde
To spew a little gall: then by the Lord,
He hath beene in both th'Indias, East and West,
Talks of Guiana, China, and the rest,
The straights of Gibraltare, and AEnian
Are but hard by; no, nor the Magellane:
Mandeville, Candish, sea-experienst Drake
Came never neere him, if he truly crake.
Gilpin, _Skialetheia_, Satyre I.
For 'AEnian' in this passage Grosart conjectures 'Aegean'! I have put a
semicolon for a comma in the third last line quoted. I take it and the
preceding to be a quotation from the traveller's talk.
PAGE =369=. A HYMNE TO GOD THE FATHER.
The text of the 1633 edition, which is, with one trifling exception,
that of the other printed editions, is followed by Walton in the first
short life of Donne prefixed to the _LXXX Sermons_ (1640). Walton
probably took it from one of the 1633, 1635, or 1639 editions; but he
may have had a copy of the poem. The MSS. which contain the hymn have
some important differences, and instead of noting these as variants
or making a patchwork text I have thought it best to print the poem
as given in _A18_, _N_, _O'F_, _S96_, _TCC_, _TCD_. The six MSS.
represent three or perhaps two different sources if _O'F_ and _S96_
are derived from a common original--(1) _A18_, _N_, _TC_, (2) _S96_,
(3) _O'F_. It is not likely, therefore, that their variants are simply
editorial emendations. In some respects their text seems to me to
improve on that of the printed editions.
_S96_ and _O'F_ differ from the third group in reading, at l. 5, 'I
have not done. ' On the other hand, _A18_ and _TC_ at l. 4 read 'do
them', and at l. 15 'this sunne' (probably a misreading of 'thie'). It
seems to me that the readings of l. 2 ('is'), l. 3 ('those sinnes'),
l. 7 ('by which I won'), and l. 15 ('Sweare by thyself') are
undoubtedly improvements, and in a text constructed on the principle
adopted by Mr. Bullen in his anthologies I should adopt them. Some of
the other readings, e. g.
