Page:The Poems of John Donne - 1896 - Volume 1.djvu/40

xxxvi (c) The well-known lines from Ben Jonson’s Epigrams (1616), entitled To Lucy, Countess of Bedford, with Mr. Donne’s Satires, and beginning—

(d) A letter by Donne to his friend George Garrard, dated April 14, 1612, in which, speaking of the Anniversaries, he says: ‘‘Of my Anniversaries, the fault that I acknowledge in myself is to have descended to print anything in verse, which, though it have excuse even in our times, by men who profess and practise much gravity; yet I confess I wonder how I declined to it, and do not pardon myself” (Alford, vol. vi. p. 353). Almost precisely similar expressions occur in two other letters written about the same date. One of these has no heading (Alford, vol. vi. p. 338); the other is headed “To Sir G. F.” (Alford, vol. vi. p. 333).

To my mind the clear implication of these letters is, not that there were “other things printed” of Donne’s besides the Anniversaries, but that the Anniversaries were in 1612 the only things he had printed. With regard to Dr. Grosart’s three other pieces of evidence, there is nothing to show that they refer to anything but verses circulated in manuscript. It is quite clear that manuscript “books” or collections of Donne’s pieces, as distinguished from scattered poems, were in existence. And amongst Donne’s letters is one to Sir Robert Karr, written in 1619 (Alford, vol. vi. p. 373), in which he sends him a copy of his poems, together with ‘‘another book,” the Biathanatos, which he definitely states had not been and was not to be published. A short MS., probably resembling that which Freeman saw, is to be found in Queen’s College, Oxford (MS. 216, f. 198). It contains only the first five Satires, the Storm and Calm, and one lyrical poem, The Curse, there called Dirae.

I come now to a point which Dr. Grosart has altogether overlooked. In a letter to Sir Henry Goodyere, written just before Donne took orders, and dated Vigilia St. Thomas, December 20, 1614 (Alford, vol. vi. p. 367), occurs the following passage—

“One thing more I must tell you; but so softly, that