Volume 1 — THE TEXT AND CANON OF DONNE'S POEMS
Reading edition
TEXT
Both the text and the canon of Donne's poems present problems which have never been frankly faced by any of his editors—problems which, considering the greatness of his reputation in the seventeenth century, and the very considerable revival of his reputation which began with Coleridge and De Quincey and has advanced uninterruptedly since, are of a rather surprising character. An attempt to define and, as far as may be, to solve these problems will begin most simply with a brief account of the form in which Donne's poems have come down to us.
The first collected edition of Donne's poems was issued in 1633, two years after his death. This is a small quarto, the title-page of which is here reproduced.