Appendix 1: Letter 18: Ad. Lanc. Andrewes, Episc.

This appendix includes a facsimile of a holograph letter by George Herbert to Bishop Lancelot Andrewes (Letter 18), now in the British Library (Sloan Manuscript 118; f. 34 R.V., 35 R), reproduced with their permission, preceded by a transcription and apparatus criticus. We include this detailed account of textual reception for historical perspective and to give readers a larger context for our own editorial practices.

Hutchinson is Herbert’s sole modern editor to document variant readings; he annotates some of his changes and refers to previous editors. His text makes silent changes in punctuation, accent marks, and capitalization; it is not possible, therefore, to recover what appears in the original text. Nor is recovery possible in the editions of William Pickering, Robert Aris Willmott, and Alexander Balloch Grosart. Pickering, the first modern editor, made many changes to Sloan, particularly in punctuation and capitalization. Succeeding editors followed him, often eliminating, for example, Herbert’s capitalizations of honorific titles or abstract nouns. Hutchinson is the only editor to preserve them. Seventeenth-century diacritical marks are helpful though not necessary; they can be quick indicators of case usage and grammatical function. Pickering retains most original diacritical marks, but he changes some, at times incorrectly, and omits others. Willmott largely follows Pickering. Grosart, in keeping with the practices of the late nineteenth century, eliminates diacritical marks, and he makes other editorial changes. Hutchinson’s edition systematically applied rules for accents, rules which Herbert himself does not follow, inserting numerous diacritical marks that do not appear in the autograph.

We have made only one change to the holograph, correcting an error in the spelling of a Greek word. In order to illustrate the history of the reception of this important text in Herbert’s own hand, our apparatus itemizes every reading by Pickering, Willmott, Grosart, and Hutchinson that deviates from the Sloan autograph. We have not, however, reported changes made to conform to modern orthography which do not reflect differences in meaning. We also do not record Hutchinson’s changes of Herbert’s consonantal v to u nor the vowel u to v.

Sigla

S Original autograph in the British Museum: Sloan 118

P 1838 edition, edited by Pickering and Giles

Wt 1865 edition, edited by Willmott

G 1874 edition, edited by Grosart

H 1941 edition, edited by Hutchinson

Letter 18
Ad Lanc. Andrewes, Episc.

Sanctissime Pater

Statìm a solatio aspectus Tui, Ego auctior iam gaudio atque distentior, Cantabrigiam redij. Quid enim manerem? habui viaticum favoris Tui, quod longiori multò itineri sufficeret. Nunc obrutus Academicis negotijs, aegrè hoc tempus illis succido: non 5 quin pectus meum plenum Tui sit, atque effusissimum in omnia officia, quae praestet mea parvitas; sed ut faciliùs ignoscas occupato calamo, qui etiam ferians nihil Tua perfectione dignum procudere possit. Utcunque Tua lenitas non ita interpretabitur mea haec scribendi intervalla, ac si iuuenili potius impetu correptus, quam 10 adductus maturo consilio, primas dedissem literas, ideoque praefervida illa desideria silentio suo sepulta nunc languescere, ut halitus tenuiores solent, qui primo caloris suasu excitati atque expergefacti, ubi sursum processerint paulò, frigefacti demum relabuntur: Hoc quidem illis accidere amat, qui celeritatem 15 affectuum raptìm sequentes, ad omnem eorum auram vacillant: Ego, non nisi meditatò, obrepsi ad favorem Tuum; perfectionibus Tuis, meis desiderijs probè cognitis, excussis, perpensisque: cum enim vim cogitationum in vitam meam omnem convertissem, & ex altera parte acuissem me aspectu virtutum Tuarum; huc, illuc   20 commeando, eò deveni animo, ut nunquam cessandum mihi ducerem, nunquam fatiscendum, donec lacteam aliquam viam ad candorem Mentis Tuae ducentem aut reperissem aut fecissem. Neque quòd ignotior eram, retundebatur unquam impetus: quip[pe,] qui sic colligebam; si tam abiectus sim, ut laboribus meis plurimis atque assiduâ observantiâ, ramenta quaepiam ex tantâ Humanitatis massâ, quae apud Te visitur, abscindere non possim, absque molestâ aliorum ac frigidâ commendatione: si huc reciderit omnis studiorum spes fructusque,

Cur ego laborem, notus esse tam pravè?Cum stare gratìs cum silentio possim.

Quod tamen haec omnia succedant ex voto, quod reclusae sint fores, receptusque sim in aliquem apud H.T. locum, magis id adeo factum esse mansuetudine Tuâ incomparabili, quam meis meritis...