Description
Book SynopsisPresents an edited text of the author's elegies and a comprehensive variorum commentary. This book is based on a study of known manuscript sources and significant printed editions of his poetry and on an examination of the criticism and scholarship of the previous centuries.
Trade ReviewIn the end, the Elegies are experiments in rhetoric, and whilst, for Donne as for Shakespeare, that does not automatically entail insincerity, it refuses to make sincerity the touchstone of excellence. We are seldom reminded as forcefully as by these poems that in the Latin poetry which underlies them the idea of rhetorical figuration is itself imaged as the application of cosmetics. March 2001
* New Criterion *
An occasion for celebration. Among the most ambitious and valuable collaborative scholarly enterprises at the end of the twentieth century. Superb.
* Early Modern Literary Studies *
Academic libraries and specialists in Renaissance and 17th–century studies should feel compelled to own each and every volume of this series.
* Seventeeth Century News *
Like its predecessors, . . . [this] volume of the Donne Variorum enterprise to appear is a triumph in every way.
* John Donne Journal *
. . . This edition immediately displaces all its predecessors, and will be indispensable for scholars and libraries.
* TLS *
In this third volume in a projected eight-volume series, Stringer presents the most authoritative texts and fullest editorial history of the elegies, including textual apparatus from all known manuscripts and editions from the 17th century onward, and also a comprehensive summary of scholarly and critical commentary on the elegies (also from Donne's era onward). The remarkable insights in the textual/editorial component include identification of the most authoritative manuscript for the elegies (housed in the New York Public Library) and a persuasive speculation that the first 12 elegies in this manuscript reflect Donne's intended sequence. Critical insights reveal the early trend not to treat the elegies as a separate group but to integrate them into a discussion of Donne's amatory verse; the value of using the elegies as context for Donne's later amatory verse, notably Songs and Sonnets; moralistic and biographical readings, which sometimes characterize Donne as a libertine and denounce him for licentiousness; Donne as the first poet to write love elegies in English; the coteries for which the elegies were written and the scribal culture that copied and recopied them for presentation to such audiences of intellectuals. The volume contains five indexes and the most comprehensive bibliography on the elegies now available. Indispensable for large collections supporting 17th–century literature.February 2001
-- A. C. Labriola * Duquesne University *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Short Forms of Reference for Donne's Works
Abbreviations Used in the Commentary
Sigla for Textual Sources
Manuscripts Listed by Traditional Classification
Symbols and Abbreviations Used in the Textual Apparatus
General Introduction
Introduction to Volume 2
Texts and Apparatuses
THE ELEGIES
Elegy 1 The Bracelet.
[Not that in color it was like thy haire]
Elegy 2 The Comparison.
[As the sweet sweate of roses in a still,]
Elegy 3. The Perfume.
[Once and but once found in thy companee]
Elegy 4. Jealousy.
[Found woman which wouldst haue thy husband dy]
Elegy 5. Oh let not me serve so.
[Oh let not me serve so, as those men serve]
Elegy 6. Natures Lay Ideott.
[Natures Lay Ideott, I tought thee to Love]
Elegy 7. Love's War.
[Till I haue peace with thee, warr other Men;]
Elegy 8. To his Mistress going to bed.
[Come Madame, come; All rest my powers defy;]
Elegy 9. Change.
[Allthough thy hand, and fayth and good works too]
Elegy 10. The Anagram.
[Marry and love thy Flauai for Shee]
Elegy 11. On his Mistris.
[By our first strange and fatal interview]
Elegy 12. His Picture.
[Here take my picture, though I bid farewell]
Elegy 13. The Autumnall.
[No springe, nor summer beautie, hath such grace]
Elegy 14. Loues Progresse.
[Whoe ever luves, if hee doe not propose]
Elegy 15. His Parting from Her.
[Since shee must goe, and I must mourne, some night]
Elegy 16. The Expostulation.
[To make the doubt cleare, that noe woman's true]
Elegy 17. Variety.
[The heuens rejoyce in motion, why should I]
Sappho to Philnis.
[As the sweet sweate of roses in a still,]
Analysis of Early Printed Copies
DUBIA
Textual Introduction
Elegy. Iulia.
[Hearke newes, o Enuy, Thou shalt heare desiry'd]
A Tale of a Citizen and his Wife.
[I sing no harme, goodsooth, to any wight]
APPENDIX
Introduction
De Verstellingh
[Hebt Flavia vry lief, en trouwtse toe: haer wesen]
Aen sign Lief.
[Doe mijn Ziel saliger gescheedt stack in mijn'leden,]
Commentary
General Commentary on the Elegies
Dates and Circumstances
General Commentary
Classical Borrowings and Literary Influences
Versification
Elegy as Genre
Elegy 1. The Bracelet.
Elegy 2. The Comparison.
Elegy 3. The Perfume.
Elegy 4. Jealousy.
Elegy 5. Oh let me not serve so.
Elegy 6. Natures Lay Ideott.
Elegy 7. Love's War.
Elegy 8. To his Mistress going to bed.
Elegy 9. Change.
Elegy 10. The Anagram.
Elegy 11. On his Mistris.
Elegy 12. His Picture.
Elegy 13. The Autumnall.
Elegy 14. Loues Progresse.
Elegy 15. His Parting From Her.
Elegy 16. The Expostulation.
Elegy 17. Variety.
Sappho to Philaenis.
DUBIA
Elegy. Iulia.
Commentary
Notes and Glosses
A Tale of a Citizen and his Wife
Commentary
Notes and Glosses
Works Cited
Indexes
