Volume 1 — VERSE-LETTER TO THE COUNTESS OF DENBIGH
Reading edition
(1652).
NOTE.
To the volume of 1652 ('Carmen Deo Nostro' &c.) was prefixed a Verse-letter to the Countess of Denbigh, illustrated with an engraving of a 'locked heart,' as reproduced in our quarto edition. In 1653 ('Sept. 23, 1653'), as appears from a contemporary marking in the unique copy in the British Museum, the following was printed: 'A Letter from Mr. Crashaw to the Countess of Denbigh. Against Irresolution and Delay in matters of Religion. London, n.d.'(4to). Collation: title-page and 3 pages, page 1st on reverse of title-page (British Museum E. 220. 2.). The Paris copy is very imperfect from some unexplained reason (68 as against 90 lines), and it would seem that some friend of the deceased poet, dissatisfied with it, and having in his (or her) possession a fuller ms., printed, if not published it. We give the enlarged text—never before noticed, having been only named, without taking the trouble to consult and compare it, by Turnbull; and for the student add the abbreviated form from 1652 'Carmen,' as it, in turn, has lines and words not in the other. See our Essay for more on this most characteristic poem, and relative to the Countess of Denbigh. G.
