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.
[Footnote 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.
France in her lunatique giddiness did hate
Ever our men, yea and our God of late;
Yet shee relies upon our Angels well
Which nere retorne
points to the period between Henry's conversion ('yea and our God of
late') and the conclusion of peace between France and Spain in 1598.
The line,