Paradoxes and Problemes / With two characters and an essay of valour. Now for the first time reprinted from the editions of 1633 and 1652 with one additional probleme.

by Iohn Donne with two Characters and an Essay of VALOUR
SOHO THE NONESUCH PRESS 30 Gerrard Street 1923
❧ PARADOXES
❧ PROBLEMES
❧ CHARACTERS
Even in 1652 the Paradoxes and Problemes were not printed entire. Another Probleme concerning Sir Walter Raleigh has been preserved in the Bodleian Library ( Tanner MSS. 299, f. 32 ), the copier stating that it ‘was so bitter that his son, Jack Donne, LL.D., thought fit not to print it with the rest’. Yet another has recently been discovered in a manuscript containing Donne’s poems.
The Juvenilia have not been reprinted since 1652. In the present edition the text follows that of the second edition of 1633, amplified from the third edition of 1652 and with the additional Probleme from the Bodleian manuscript, already printed by Mr. Edmund Gosse in his Life and Letters of Donne, 1899, ii. 52 . The spurious epigrams have not been included.
GEOFFREY KEYNES
Nullos eſſe Deos, inane Cœlum Affirmat Cœlius, probatq; quod ſe Factum vidit, dum negat hæc, beatum.
Vxor peſſima, peſſimus maritus Miror tam malè convenire.
Hee wonders that betweene two ſo like , there could be any diſcord , yet perchance for all this diſcord there was nere the leſſe increaſe .
I am not of that ſeard Impudence that I dare defend Women , or pronounce them good; yet we ſee Phyſitians allow ſome vertue in every poyſon . Alas! why ſhould we except Women ? ſince certainely, they are good for Phyſicke at leaſt, ſo as ſome wine is good for a feaver . And though they be the Occaſioners of many ſinnes, they are alſo the Puniſhers and Revengers of the ſame ſinnes: For I have ſeldome ſeene one which conſumes his ſubſtance and body upon them, eſcape diſeaſes , or beggery ; and this is their Iuſtice. And if ſuum cuiq; dare , bee the fulfilling of all Civill Iuſtice , they are moſt juſt ; for they deny that which is theirs to no man.