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Reviews Louis Martz, ed., George Herbertand Henry Vaughan. Oxford and New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1986. xxxii + 569 pp. $12.95 paperback. by Joseph H. Summers It is wonderful to have all of Herbert's English poems, A Priest to the Temple, both parts of Vaughan's S/7ex Scintillans, and the lyrics from Poems . . . 1646 in a single paperback volume. Moreover, this is a beautiful book, elegantly designed end printed, firmly bound (no peges in my copy show eny signs of loosening), end not et oll cumbersome (the peges ere only 5 by 7 ond 3/4 inches end the volume less then 1 end 1/4 inch thick). While Vaughan might very well hove been flattered to have his poems included with those of the "blessed man, Mr. George Herbert," I think Herbert might have been equally pleased with the "decency" end "neetness" of the whole volume. This is one of the most signally successful of the new "Oxford Authors" series, in which Oxford University Press has been publishing reliable, relatively plain texts besed primorily on their monumentel volumes in the Oxford English Texts —editions thet students con use, trust, end even efford to buy. At e time when most of the anthologies of seventeenth-century literature are unobtainable and when paperback editions tend to disappeer shortly efter publicetion, ell teechers of seventeenth -century poetry should rejoice thot we hove the mejor texts of Herbert end Voughen oveileble in ß fine edition with helpful commentary — surely one thot Oxford will keep in print for decodes. Mertz has provided over one hundred peges of notes (pp. 435-539), two brief eppendices (one includes the text of "G.H.'s" poem on the Queen of Bohemio thet Ted-Lerry Pebworth hes ottributed to Herbert; the other expleins e reeding of a crux in "The Collar" that Martz takes from Mario Di Cesare), o two-page "Selective Glossary," indexes of both 50BOOK REVIEWS titles and first-lines, and a remerkobly full bibliography of suggested "Further Reading" which includes nearly all significant volumes on the two poets since George Herbert Palmer's edition of Herbert in 1905. (I find very few slips: McCloskeyond Murphy's translation of Herbert's Latin Poetry was published by Ohio University Press rather then the Ohio State University Press; Alen Rudrum's monograph on Vaughan, published by the University of Wales Press in 1984, is missing.) Naturally, Martz bases his conservatively modernized texts on those of F. E. Hutchinson ond L. C. Mertin, but he hes freshly consulted the significentmenuscripts end eorly editions end he is very much ewore of the work done since the 1940s. His annotations on Herbert's poems focus precisely on what the modern reader most needs: seventeenth-century usoges, biblical references and allusions, biographical and historical references, and pronunciations that are important for the rhythm. His note on the relation of "Jordan" (II) to Sidney is particularly good, and I am grateful for his suggestions thot the "friend" in Herbert's verse, particularly in "Love unknown" ond "Jorden" (II), mey be Christ. I hove e few quibbles. Some of the suggested puns strike me os unlikely; I cen't see that the stanze form of "The Beg" "resembles e beg with hondles"; and I don't understand the gloss on line 7 of "The H. Scriptures" (II). I think Mertz might usefully hove noted Chono Bloch's objections to Rosemond Tuve's ergument thot "The Sacrifice" is based on the liturgical Reproaches of Good Friday; and I think he misses a third possible sense of "Fit thyself against thy fall," the last line of "Church-monuments": prepare to oppose further fall into sin. In the Vaughan annotetions, Martz notes fully the Herbertian es well es the biblicel echoes. He elso mokes good use, porticulerly on olchemicel points, of Alon Rudrum's splendid edition of Henry Voughon's Poems os well os his edition of Thomes Voughon's Works. I don't see the "living faces" which Martz thinks are "visible within and along the edges of the heart" in the emblematic title-page of the 1650 Silex Scintillans. An accent has slipped on the second syllable of "retinue" in the note on line...

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