Page:The Poems of John Donne - 1896 - Volume 1.djvu/46

xlii Upon a subsequent date, October 31 of the same year, the allowance of the Satires was noted, but no further mention is made of the excepted Elegies. The book was issued in 1633. It is a small quarto, and has the following title-page—

| |  |  |  |  | Printed by M. F. for John Marriot, | and are to be sold at his shop in St. Dunstan’s | Churchyard in Fleet-Street, 1633.

This is followed by the Printer to the Understanders and the Hexastichon Bibliopolae. The poems are printed without much attempt at arrangement. Eight Elegies, numbered, come together on pages 44, sgg. Four other Elegies appear in other parts of the volume, but I suspect that the five mentioned in the Stationers’ Registers entry were five of those added in 1635, and that Marriott did not get authority for them in time for publication in 1633. The Elegies on the author’s death at the close of the volume are by H[enry] K[ing], Thos. Browne, Edw. Hyde, Doctor C[orbet] B[ishop] of O[xford], Hen. Valentine, Iz. W[alton], M. Tho. Carie [Carew], Sir Lucius Carie, M. Mayne, Arth. Wilson, M. R. B. [Anon; Epitaph], Endy. Porter.

The second edition, which, like the subsequent ones, is an octavo, appeared in 1635. There is a portrait engraved by Marshall; the Hexastichon ad Bibliopolam is added to the prefatory matter, and the poems are arranged in sections beginning with the Songs and Sonnets and ending with the Divine Poems. These changes are retained in the later editions. The title-page is the same as that of 1633. The third edition of 1639 and fourth of 1649 are almost identical with that of 1635.

In the meantime, it appears by a document in the Record Office, dated Dec. 16, 1637, and printed by Dr. Grosart, that legal steps had been taken by the younger Donne to recover certain rights over the Poems which he alleged John Marriott had disregarded. The dispute does not seem to have interfered with the publication of the editions of 1639 and 1649; indeed it would appear that the conflicting parties came to terms, for the fifth edition, that of 1650, was clearly published under the superintend-