Of the miscellaneous poems here collected there is very little to be
said. The first eight or nine come from the O'Flaherty MS. (_O'F_),
which professes to be a collection of Donne's poems, and may, Mr.
Warwick Bond thinks, have been made by the younger Donne, as it
contains a poem by him. It is careless enough to be his work.
They illustrate well the kind of poem attributed to Donne in the
seventeenth century, some on the ground of their wit, others because
of their subject-matter. Donne had written some improper poems as a
young man; it was tempting therefore to assign any wandering poem
of this kind to the famous Dean of St. Paul's. The first poem, _The
Annuntiation_, has nothing to do with Donne's poem _The Annuntiation
and Passion_, but has been attached to it in a manner which is
common enough in the MSS. The poem _Love's Exchange_ is obviously an
imitation of Donne's _Lovers infinitenesse_ (p. 17). _A Paradoxe of a
Painted Face_ was attributed to Donne because he had written a prose
_Paradox_ entitled _That Women ought to paint_. The poem was not
published till 1660. In Harleian MS. it is said to be 'By my Lo: of
Cant. follower Mr. Baker'. The lines on _Black Hayre and Eyes_ (p.
460) are found in fifteen or more different MSS. in the British Museum
alone, and were printed in _Parnassus Biceps_ (1656) and Pembroke and
Ruddier's _Poems_ (1660). Two of the MSS. attribute the poem to Ben
Jonson, but others assign it to W. P. or Walton Poole. Mr. Chambers
points out that a Walton Poole has verses in _Annalia Dubrensia_
(1636), and also cites from Foster's _Alumni Oxonienses_: 'Walton
Poole of Wilts arm. matr. 9.1.1580 at Trinity Coll. aged 15.' These
may be the same person. The signature A. P. or W. P. at the foot of
several pages suggests that the Stowe MS. 961 of Donne's poems had
belonged to some member of this family. The fragment of an Elegy at
p. 462 occurs only in _P_, where it forms part of an Heroicall Epistle
with which it has obviously nothing to do. I have thought it worth
preserving because of its intense though mannered style. The line,
'Fortune now do thy worst' recalls _Elegie XII_, l. 67. The closing
poem,'Farewell ye guilded follies,' comes from Walton's _Complete
Angler_ (1658), where it is thus introduced: 'I will requite you with
a very good copy of verses: it is a farewell to the vanities of the
world, and some say written by Dr. D. But let they be written by
whom they will, he that writ them had a brave soul, and must needs be
possest with happy thoughts of their composure.' In the third edition
(1661) the words were changed to 'And some say written by Sir Harry
Wotton, who I told you was an excellent Angler.' In one MS. they are
attributed to Henry King, Donne's friend and literary executor, and in
two others they are assigned to Sir Kenelm Digby, as by whom they are
printed in _Wits Interpreter_ (1655). Mr. Chambers points out that
'The closing lines of King's _The Farewell_ are curiously similar to
those of this poem.' He quotes:
My woeful Monument shall be a cell,
The murmur of the purling brook my knell;
My lasting Epitaph the Rock shall groan;
Thus when sad lovers ask the weeping stone,
What wretched thing does in that centre lie,
The hollow echo will reply, 'twas I.
I cannot understand why Mr. Chambers, to whom I am indebted for most
of this information, was content to print so inadequate a text when
Walton was in his hand. Two of his lines completely puzzled me:
Welcome pure thoughts! welcome, ye careless groans!
These are my guests, this is that courtage tones.
'Groans' are generally the sign of care, not of its absence. However,
I find that Ashmole MS. 38, in the Bodleian, and some others read:
Welcome pure thoughts! welcome ye careless groves!
These are my guests, this is that court age loves.
This explains the mystery. But Mr. Chambers followed Grosart; and
Grosart was inclined to prefer the version of a bad MS. which he had
found to a good printed version.