THE ELEGIES.
Of the Elegies two groups seem to have been pretty widely circulated before the larger collections were made or publication took place. Each contained either twelve or thirteen, the twelve or thirteen being made up sometimes by the inclusion of the Funeral Elegy, 'Sorrow who to this house,' afterwards called Elegie on the L. C. The order in the one group, as we find it in e.g. D, H49, Lec, is The Bracelet,[1] Going to Bed, Jealousie, The Anagram, Change, The Perfume, His Picture, 'Sorrow who to this house,' 'Oh, let mee not serve,' Loves Warr, On his Mistris, 'Natures lay Ideott, I taught,' Loves Progress. The second group, as we find it in A25, JC, and W, contains The Bracelet, The Comparison, The Perfume, Jealousie, 'Oh, let not me (sic W) serve,' 'Natures lay Ideott, I taught,' Loves Warr, Going to Bed, Change, The Anagram, On his Mistris, His Picture, 'Sorrow, who to this house.' The last is not given in A25. It will be noticed that D, H49, Lec drops The Comparison; A25, JC, W, Loves Progress; and that there were thirteen elegies, taking the two groups together, apart from the Funeral Elegy.
[1] I take the titles given in the editions for ease of reference to the reader of this edition. The only title which D, H49, Lec have is On Loves Progresse; A25, JC, and W have none. Other MSS. give one or other occasionally.
These are the most widely circulated and probably the earliest of Donne's Elegies, taken as such. Of the rest The Dreame is given in D, H49, Lec, but among the songs, and The Autumnall is placed by itself. The rest are either somewhat doubtful or were not allowed to get into general circulation.
Can we to any extent date the Elegies? There are some hints which help to indicate the years to which the earlier of them probably belong. In The Bracelet Donne speaks of Spanish 'Stamps' as having
slily made
Gorgeous France, ruin'd, ragged and decay'd;
Scotland which knew no State, proud in one day:
mangled seventeen-headed Belgia.
The last of these references is too indefinite to be of use. I mean that it covers too wide a period. Nor, indeed, do the others bring us very far. The first indicates the period from the alliance between the League and the King of Spain, 1585, when Philip promised a monthly subsidy of 50,000 crowns, to the conversion and victory of Henry IV in 1593; the second, the short time during which Spanish influence gained the upper hand in Scotland, between 1582 and 1586. After 1593 is the only determinable date. In Loves Warre we are brought nearer to a definite date.