The First Edition of Donne’s "Poems”
Poems, by J.D. With Elegies on the Authors Death.
London: Printed by M[iles] F[lesher] for John Marriot, 1633.
Full Description:
D[ONNE], J[ohn]. Poems, by J. D. With Elegies on the Authors Death. London: Printed by M[iles] F[lesher] for John Marriot, 1633.
First edition of the principal collection of Donne’s poetical works, issued two years after his death. Small quarto volume (7 5/8 x 5 3/8 inches; 195 x 138 mm.). [x], 406 pp. With the rare two leaves (signed A and A2) containing “The Printer to the Understanders” and “Hexastichon Bibliopolæ,” which are not present in all copies. Leaf Nn1 in the first state with thirty-five lines of text on p. 273 instead of thirty or thirty-one, with omission of the usual running headline. Also with "Epistle" (A3-A4). With numerous woodcuts throughout. Bound without first and last blank leaves (A1 and Fff4) as often the case. Several lines in the Satyres on pages 330, 331 and 341, originally containing lines offensive to the king and church, are left blank.
Full modern speckled calf. Boards ruled in blind. Spine with brown morocco spine label, lettered in gilt. Newer endpapers. Previous owner's bookplate to front pastedown. The title-page and following two pages (Epistle) have been washed. The title-page with paper repair to lower outer corner and several contemporary ink markings. Further ink markings to final leaf ot Epistles. Some minor dampstaining in a few places. Overall a very good copy.
This first edition of the Poems was based on manuscripts derived from the author's papers and provided the best 17th-century text of Donne's verses. Although his poetry was circulated in small bundles of manuscript copies among the cultured circles of Elizabethan and Jacobean society, Donne deliberately kept most of it out of print, fearing to tarnish his reputation in the religious establishment. Thus, almost none of his poetry appeared in print during his lifetime.
“This book appears to have been repeatedly corrected as it passed through the press and consequently it is found in a number of different states...It seems to be clear, however, that these ‘states are really governed by chance according to the order in which the sheets were taken up for folding before making up the book. No importance, therefore, can be attached to the various combinations in which the corrections are found...One of the more conspicuous irregularities in the printing is seen on Nn1a (p. 273), where there is no running head-line between rules and there are five more lines of text than on a normal page...The two leaves with The printer to the Understanders and Hexastichon Bibliopolae (with sign. A and A2) are an insertion, and are placed sometimes after the Epistle, but more often in the centre of the first quire...Sometimes the two leaves of The printer etc. are omitted altogether. It seems probable that they were an afterthought and were inserted in only a portion of the edition” (Keynes).
"The first editors of Donne's poetry divided his work into about a dozen groupings. The Songs and Sonnets which open the volume are generally amorous in theme; the Divine Poems, which close it, are described in their title... Early scholars took for granted that all the bawdy, cynical and lecherous poems were written by young Jack Donne, while all the somber, penitent, devotional poems were written by the godly divine. The more we learn about the matter, the less this easy division seems to stand up... The poetry of Donne represents a sharp break with that written by his predecessors and most of his contemporaries. Whether he writes of love or devotion, Donne's particular blend of wit and seriousness, of intense feeling, darting thought, and vast erudition, creates a fascination quite beyond the reach of easier styles and less strenuous minds" (Adams).
"With Donne begins a new era in the history of the English love lyric... The spirit of his best love poetry passed into the most interesting of his elegies and his religious verses, the influence of which was... perhaps even greater, than that of his songs" (Rosenbach 30:127).
Grolier, Langland to Wither, 71. Keynes, Donne, 78. Pforzheimer 296. STC 7045.
HBS 69733.
$40,000.
Price: $40,000.00
Item #69733