ii. 279) among the papers of Sir Julius Caesar bears the statement

that the verses were written in Donne's 'great sickness in December 1623'. Professor Moore Smith is of opinion that Sir Julius Caesar may have been right and Walton mistaken, and there is a good deal to be said for this view. 'It seems', he says, 'more likely that Walton should have attributed the poem wrongly to Donne's last illness, than that the MS. copy should antedate it by seven years.' In 1640 Walton simply referred it to his deathbed; the precise date was given in 1658. Moreover the date 1623 seems to Professor Moore Smith confirmed by a letter to Sir Robert Ker (later Lord Ancrum) in 1624 (Gosse, _Life &c._ ii. 191), in which Donne writes, 'If a flat map be but pasted upon a round globe the farthest east and the farthest west meet and are all one.'

On the other hand, Walton's final date is very precise, and was probably given to him by King. If the poem was written at the same time as that 'to God the Father', why did it not pass into wider circulation? Stowe MS. 961 is the only collection in which I have found it. The use of the simile in the letter to Ker is not so conclusive as it seems. In that same letter Donne says, 'Sir, I took up this paper to write a letter; but my imagination was full of a sermon before, for I write but a few hours before I am to preach.' Now I have in my note cited this simile from an undated sermon on one of the Penitentiary Psalms. This, not the poem, may have been the occasion of its repetition in this letter. Donne is very prone to repeat a favourite figure--inundation, the king's stamped face &c. It is quite likely that the poem was the last, not the first, occasion on which he used the flat map. Note that the other chief figure in the poem, the straits which lead to the Pacific Sea, was used in a sermon (see note) dated February 12, 1629.

The figure of the flat map is not used, as one might expect, in the section of the _Devotions_ headed _The Patient takes his bed_, but the last line of the poem is recalled by some words there: 'and therefore am I _cast downe_, that I might not be _cast away_.'

Walton's dates are often inaccurate, but here the balance of the evidence seems to me in his favour. As Mr. Gosse says, Sir Julius Caesar may have confounded this hymn with 'Wilt thou forgive'. In re-reading the _Devotions_ with Professor Moore Smith's statement in view I have come on two other points of interest. Donne's views on the immortality of the soul (see II. pp. 160-2) are very clearly stated: 'That light, which is the very emanation of the light of God ... only that bends not to this _Center_, to _Ruine_; that which was not made of _Nothing_, is not thretned with this annihilation. All other things are; even _Angels_, even our _soules_; they move upon the same _Poles_, they bend to the same _Center_; and if they were not made immortall by _preservation_, their _Nature_ could not keep them from sinking to this _center_, _Annihilation_' (pp. 216-17).

The difficult line in the sonnet _Resurrection_ (p. 321, l. 8) is perhaps illuminated by pp. 206-8, where Donne speaks of 'thy first booke, the booke of _life_', 'thy second book, the booke of Nature,' and closes a further list with 'to those, _the booke with seven seals_, which only _the Lamb which was slain, was found worthy to open_; which, I hope, it shal not disagree with the measure of thy blessed _spirit_, to interpret, the _promulgation of their pardon, and righteousnes, who are washed in the blood of the Lamb_'. This is possibly the 'little booke' of the sonnet, perhaps changed by Donne to 'life-book' to simplify the reference. But the two are not the same.

ADDENDUM.

Vol. I, p. 368, l. 6. Whilst my Physitions by their love are growne Cosmographers ... Sir Julius Caesar's MS. (Addl. MS. 34324) has _Loer_, scil. _Lore_. This is probably the true reading.

ERRATUM.

=P. 274=, l. 28. _for_ figure-inundation _read_ figure--inundation

INDEX OF FIRST LINES.

(VOL. II.)

PAGE

A learned Bishop of this Land 53 Amongst the Poets Dacus numbered is 101 An ill year of a Goodyere us bereft 145 As in tymes past the rusticke shepheards sceant 171

Esteemed knight take triumph over death 145

Goe catch a star that's falling from the sky 12

Henrie the greate, greate both in peace and war 261 How often hath my pen (mine hearts Solicitor) 103

Loe her's a man worthy indeede to travell 129

No want of duty did my mind possess 7

Stay, view this Stone, and if thou beest not such 213

This Lifes a play groaned out by natures Arte 268 Thou send'st me prose and rimes, I send for those 160 Though Ister have put down the Rhene 261 'Tis not a coate of gray or Shepheardes Life 141 Titus the brave and valorous young gallant 101

Whoso termes love a fire, may like a poet 52 Wotton the country and the country swaine 141

* * * * *

Oxford: Horace Hart, M.A., Printer to the University

* * * * *

Transcriber's note:

Although Scotland had accepted the Gregorian calendar in 1600, until 1752, England still followed the Julian calendar (after Julius Caesar, 44 B.C.), and celebrated New Year's Day on March 25th (Annunciation Day). Most Catholic countries accepted the Gregorian calendar (after Pope Gregory XIII) from some time after 1582 (the Catholic countries of France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy in 1582, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Switzerland within a year or two, Hungary in 1587, and Scotland in 1600), and celebrated New Year's Day on January 1st. England finally changed to the Gregorian calendar in 1752.

This is the reason for the double dates in the early months of the years in some parts of this book. e.g., there is a statement, on page 134, that "He died February 7, 1627/8. (i.e. 1627 in England; 1628 in Scotland). Only after March 25th (Julian New Years Day) was the year the same in the two countries. The Julian calendar was known as 'Old Style', and the Gregorian calendar as 'New Style' (N.S.).

Page lxiv, Footnote 9: 'Garrard att his quarters in ??' Perhaps ϑermyte with U+03D1 GREEK THETA SYMBOL: thermyte ? perhaps meaning "(at the sign of) The Hermit"? (The printer, rightly or wrongly, seems to have used a 'theta' at the beginning of the word).

Page lxv, a facsimile of a Title Page, split a cross-page paragraph. One sentence was on page lxiv; the rest of the paragraph was on page lxvi. In the interest of a link to the page, it seemed beneficial to leave the paragraph as it was split.

Page lxv: 'VVith' is as printed.

Page lxxxvi: 'Lo:' retained, although 'Ld.' is printed above. From the context, 'Lo:' may not be a typo, as this form occurs elsewhere.

"and the _Obsequies to the Lo: Harrington_."

Page cxvi, footnote 39 (cont.: '17-8.' corrected to '17-18.'.

"_To Sr Henry Wotton_, p. 180, ll. 17-18."

Page cxxx: 'p. 406' corrected to 'p. 412'

"'Dear Love, continue nice and chaste' (p. 412)"

Pages cxxxi-cxxxii: missing word at page-turn? 'and' added in brackets.

"And as one is ascribed to Roe on indisputable (and) three on very strong evidence,..."

Page 23: 'll. 140-6' corrected to 'll. 440-6'

"_The Second Anniversary_, ll. 440-6 (p. 264)"

Page 34: 'coporales' corrected to 'corporales'.

"'quanto subtilius huiusmodi immutationes occultas corporales perpendunt.'"

Page 84: 'p. 308, ll. 27-8' corrected to p. 308, ll. 317-8

"in the _Progresse of the Soule_, p. 308, ll. 317-8:"

Page 187: (See Pearsall Smith, _Life and Letters of Sir Henry Wotton_ (1907). is as printed.

Page 214: p. 416 corrected to p. 422.

"For the relation of this _Elegie_ to that beginning 'Death, be not proud' (p. 422) see _Text and Canon, &c._, p. cxliii."

Page 213: 'p. 404' corrected to p. 410'

"('Shall I goe force an Elegie,' p. 410)"

Pages 235, 263: The inscriptions have a character which looks like a reversed capital C, but which is actually a ROMAN NUMERAL REVERSED ONE HUNDRED Ↄ (U+2183 or Ↄ).

On Page 235, the date of Anne (More) Donne's death is given as CIↃ. DC. XVII. i.e. hundreds, ten, (1000) plus 600 plus 17, or the year 1617, which is correct.

On Page 263, the date given is CIↃ. IↃC. XXIII.

CIↃ = 1000; IↃC =500+100 (600), XXIII = 23, so the date is 1623.

(Reference for page 263: [http:// hypotheses.org/17871] ... 'Le latin de Locke ... Goudae apud Justum Ab Hoeve

CIↃ IↃC LXXXIX ... CIↃ = 1000 IↃC se décompose en IↃ = 500 + C = 100 soit 600 LXXXIX = 89 La date correspondante est 1689*.

* 2011 serait CIↃ CIↃ XI '.)

(So 2015 would be CIↃ CIↃ XV ').

Page 251: _S69_ corrected to _S96_

"_S96_ and _O'F_ differ from the third group...."

Page 275: Erratum, p. 274.... This has been corrected.