The Variorum Edition of the Poetry of John Donne, Volume 7, Part 1: The Holy Sonnets

HSSighs

HSSighs Textual Introduction As is shown on Figure 2 in the General Textual Introduction (p. lxii), HSSighs is the third poem in both the earlier, Group...III sequence of "Diuine Meditations" and in NY3's later replication of that sequence at the beginning of its collection of "Holy Sonnets." The poem is discarded in the restructuring that gives rise to the subse... quent Group 1/11 sequence, however, and thus does not appear in A in 1633. In the editorially constructed sequence of 1635 (B), the poem is recovered from H6 and restored to its original place in third position, where it remains in all subsequent editions save those of Alford, who reproduces the 1633 sequence; Lowell (M), who combines the Holy Sonnets with Corona in a continuously numbered series; Gardner, who prints it as the third of the "penitential" sonnets "added in 1635"; and Shaw... cross, who essentially follows Gardner (see Figure 6 on p. lxxvi). The Group...III manuscripts vary importantly in lines 5, 7, and 8; and all three changes are the work of the yI scribe, whose alterations are passed on to the siblings C9 and H6. This scribe sophisticates "my Idolatry" to "mine Idolatry" in line 5 and "Because" to "'Cause" in line 8, additionally changing the syntax of the original "That sufferance was my Sin, now I [B46: I now] repent" in line 7 to "That sufferance was my sinne I now repent" by dropping the internal comma. NY3 (Group IV) carries for... ward the B46...H5...HHI version of the Group...III text without substantive alteration. B sets the H6 text into print, and the poem subsequently appears in C-G with... out further change. The manuscript copy in AFI is taken from G and, apparently, that in HII from B (see the Textual Introduction to HSMade). That most modern editions position the poem as in B is noted above, and most follow the text of the seventeenth...century prints as well, the exceptions being that Tonson (H) introduces "these" (for "those") in line I and is followed in this reading by I-K, M, and N; that U reject's B's "mine" in favor of the manuscripts' "my" in line 5; that U and AA refuse B's "'Cause" for the manuscripts' "Because"; and that anum... ber of these editions choose the manuscripts' "now I" over B's "I now" in line 7 (see the section Verbal Variants in Selected Modern Editions below). Although a major... ity of the moderns also reproduce B's syntax in line 7, half...a...dozen restore the manu... script original: P, U, Z, and AA punctuate the line with a comma after "Sin," while Q and S supply a semicolon. Textual Apparatus Copy--text: NY3. Texts collated: AFI (p. [407]); B46 (f. 97V); C9 (f. 94v); H5 (f. 82V); H6 (p. 26); HII (pp. 323-24); HHI (ff. I26v-27); NY3 75 HSSighs Textual Introduction As is shown on Figure 2 in the General Textual Introduction (p. lxii), HSSighs is the third poem in both the earlier, Group-III sequence of "Diuine Meditations" and in NY3's later replication of that sequence at the beginning of its collection of "Holy Sonnets." The poem is discarded in the restructuring that gives rise to the subsequent Group Illl sequence, however, and thus does not appear in A in 1633. In the editorially constructed sequence of 1635 (B), the poem is recovered from H6 and restored to its original place in third position, where it remains in all subsequent editions save those of Alford, who reproduces the 1633 sequence; Lowell (M), who combines the Holy Sonnets with Corona in a continuously numbered series; Gardner, who prints it as the third of the "penitential" sonnets "added in 1635"; and Shawcross , who essentially follows Gardner (see Figure 6 on p. lxxvi). The Group-III manuscripts vary importantly in lines 5, 7, and 8; and all three changes are the work of the y' scribe, whose alterations are passed on to the siblings C9 and H6. This scribe sophisticates "my Idolatry" to "mine Idolatry" in line 5 and "Because" to "'Cause" in line 8, additionally changing the syntax of the original "That sufferance was my Sin, now I [B46: I now] repent" in line 7 to "That sufferance was my sinne I now repent" by dropping the internal comma. NY3 (Group IV) carries forward the B46-H5-HHl version of the Group-III text without substantive alteration. B sets the H6...