As with the Grolier Club edition, so with Mr. Chambers' edition, I have recorded and discussed the chief differences between my text and his. I have worked with his edition constantly beside me. I used it for my collations on account of its convenient numbering of the lines. To Mr. Chambers' commentary also I owe my first introduction to the wide field of the manuscripts. His knowledge of seventeenth-century literature and history, which even in 1896 was extensive, has directed me in taking up most of the questions of canon and authorship which I have investigated. It is easy to record one's points of disagreement with a predecessor; it is more difficult to estimate accurately how much one owes to his labours.
Mr. Chambers, too, has 'modernized the spelling and corrected the exceptionally chaotic punctuation of the old editions'. Of the latter changes he has, with one or two exceptions, preserved no record, so that when, as is sometimes the case, he has misunderstood the poet, it is impossible to get back to the original text of which the stops as well as the words are a part.]
[39] It is very unlikely that Donne had in his possession when he died manuscript copies of his early poems. (1) Walton makes no mention of them when enumerating the works which Donne left behind in manuscript, including 'six score sermons all written with his own hand; also an exact and laborious treatise concerning self-murder, called Biathanatos', as well as elaborate notes on authors and events. (2) In 1614, when Donne thought of publishing his poems, he found it necessary to beg for copies from his friends: 'By this occasion I am made a Rhapsoder of mine own rags, and that cost me more diligence to seek them, then it did to make them. This made me aske to borrow that old book of you.' To Sir H. G., Vigilia St. Tho. 1614. (3) Jonson and Walton both tell us that Donne, after taking Orders, would have been glad to destroy his early poems. The sincerity of this wish has been doubted because of what he says in a letter regarding Biathanatos: 'I only forbid it the press and the fire.' But Biathanatos is a very different matter from the poems. It is a grave and devout, if daring, treatise in casuistry. No one can enter into Donne's mind from 1617 onwards, as ascetic devotion became a more and more sincere and consuming passion, and believe that he kept copies of the early poems or paradoxes, prepared for the press like his sermons or devotions.
[40] Contributions To The Textual Criticism of The Divina Commedia, &c. By the Rev. Edward Moore, D.D., &c. Cambridge, 1889. The tests which Dr. Moore lays down for the judgement, on internal grounds, of a reading are—I state them shortly in my own words—(1) That is the best reading which best explains the erroneous readings. I have sometimes recorded a quite impossible reading of a manuscript because it clearly came from one rather than another of two rivals, and thus lends support to that reading despite its own aberration. (2) Generally speaking, 'Difficilior lectio potior,' the more difficult reading is the more likely to be the original. This applies forcibly in the case of a subtle and difficult author like Donne. The majority of the changes made in the later editions arise from the tendency to make Donne's thought more commonplace. Even in 1633 errors have crept in. The obsolete words 'lation' (p. [94], l. 47), 'crosse' (p. [43], l. 14) have been altered; the old-fashioned and metaphorically used idiom 'in Nature's gifts' has confused the editor's punctuation; the subtle thought of the epistles has puzzled and misled. (3) 'Three minor considerations may be added which are often very important, when applicable, though they are from the nature of the case less frequently available.' Moore. These are (a) the consistency of the reading with sentiments expressed by the author elsewhere. I have used the Sermons and other prose works to illustrate and check Donne's thought and vocabulary throughout. (b) The relation of the reading to the probable source of the poet's thought. A Scholastic doctrine often lurks behind Donne's wit, ignorance of which has led to corruption of the text. See The Dreame, p. [37], ll. 7, 16; To Sr Henry Wotton, p. [180], ll. 17-18. (c) The relation of a reading to historical fact. In the letter To Sr Henry Wotton, p. [187], the editors, forgetting the facts, have confused Cadiz with Calais, and the Azores with St. Michael's Mount.
[41] It is worth while to compare the kind of mistakes in which a manuscript abounds with those which occur in a printed edition. The tendency of the copyist was to write on without paying much attention to the sense, dropping words and lines, sometimes two consecutive half-lines or whole stanzas, ignoring or confounding punctuation, mistaking words, &c. He was, if a professional copyist or secretary, not very apt to attempt emendation. The kind of errors he made were easily detected when the proof was read over, or when the manuscript was revised with a view to printing. Words or half-lines could be restored, &c. But in such revision a new and dangerous source of error comes into play, the tendency of the editor to emend.
[42] Take a few instances where the latest editor, very naturally and explicably, securing at places a reading more obvious and euphonious, has departed from 1633 and followed 1635 or 1669. I shall take them somewhat at random and include a few that may seem still open to discussion. In The Undertaking (p. [10], l. 18), for 'Vertue attir'd in woman see', 1633, Mr. Chambers reads, with 1635-69, 'Vertue in woman see.' So:
| Loves Vsury, p. [13], l. 5: | |
|---|---|
| let my body raigne 1633 | let my body range 1635-69, Chambers |
| Aire and Angels, p. [22], l. 19: | |
| Ev'ry thy hair 1633 | Thy every hair 1650-69, Chambers |
| The Curse, p. [41], ll. 3, 10: | |
| His only, and only his purse 1633-54 | Him, only for his purse 1669, Chambers |
| who hath made him such 1633 | who hath made them such 1669, Chambers |
| A Valediction, p. [50], l. 16: | |
| Those things which elemented it 1633 | The thing which elemented it 1669, Chambers |
| The Relique, p. [62], l. 13: | |
| mis-devotion 1633-54 | mass-devotion 1669, Chambers |
| Elegie II, p. [80], l. 6: | |
| is rough 1633, 1669 | is tough 1635-54, Chambers |
| Elegie VI, p. [88], ll. 24, 26: | |
| and then chide 1633 | and there chide 1635-69, Chambers |
| her upmost brow 1633 | her utmost brow 1635-69, Chambers (an oversight). |
| Epithalamions, p. [129], l. 60: | |
| store, 1633 | starres, 1635-69, Chambers |
| Ibid., p. [133], l. 55: | |
| I am not then from Court 1633 | And am I then from Court? 1635-69, Chambers |
| Satyres, p. [169], ll. 37-41: | |
| The Iron Age that was, when justice was sold, now Injustice is sold deerer farre; allow All demands, fees, and duties; gamsters, anon The mony which you sweat, and sweare for, is gon Into other hands: 1633 | The iron Age that was, when justice was sold (now Injustice is sold dearer) did allow All claim'd fees and duties. Gamesters, anon The mony which you sweat and swear for is gon Into other hands. 1635-54, Chambers (no italics; 'that' a relativepronoun, I take it) |
| The Calme, p. [179], l. 30: | |
| our brimstone Bath 1633 | a brimstone bath 1635-69, Chambers |
| To Sr Henry Wotton, p. [180], l. 17: | |
| dung, and garlike 1633 | dung, or garlike 1635-69, Chambers |
| Ibid., p. [181], ll. 25, 26: | |
| The Country is a desert, where no good, Gain'd, as habits, not borne, is understood. 1633 | The Country is a desert, where the good, Gain'd inhabits not, borne, is not understood. 1635-54, Chambers. |
In all these passages, and I could cite others, it seems to me (I have stated my reasons fully in the notes) that if the sense of the passage be carefully considered, or Donne's use of words (e.g. 'mis-devotion'), or the tenor of his thought, the reading of 1633 is either clearly correct or has much to be said for it. Now in all these cases the reading has the support of all the manuscripts, or of the most and the best.
[43] e.g. 'their nothing' p. [31], l. 53; 'reclaim'd' p. [56], l. 25; 'sport' p. [56], l. 27.]
[44] The 1633 text of these letters, which is generally that of A18, N, TC, is better than I was at one time disposed to think, though there are some indubitable errors and perhaps some original variants. The crucial reading is at p. [197], l. 58, where 1633 and A18, N, TC read 'not naturally free', while 1635-69 and O'F read 'borne naturally free', at first sight an easier and more natural text, and adopted by both Chambers and Grosart. But consideration of the passage, and of what Donne says elsewhere, shows that the 1633 reading is certainly right.