JOHN DONNE: THE CRITICAL HERITAGE Volume II THE CRITICAL HERITAGE SERIES GENERAL EDITOR: B.C.SOUTHAM, M.A., B.LITT (OXON.) Formerly Department of English, Westfield College, University of London The Critical Heritage series collects together a large body of criticism on major figures in literature Each volume presents the contemporary responses to a particular writer, enabling the student to follow the formation of critical attitudes to the writer’s work and its place within a literary tradition The carefully selected sources range from landmark essays in the history of criticism to fragments of contemporary opinion and little-published documentary material, such as letters and diaries Significant pieces of criticism from later periods are also included in order to demonstrate fluctuations in reputation following the writer’s death For a list of volumes in the series, see the end of the book JOHN DONNE THE CRITICAL HERITAGE Volume II Edited by PROFESSOR A.J.SMITH Completed with introductory and editorial material by CATHERINE PHILLIPS London and New York First published 1996 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005 “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 © 1996 Compilation, the estate of A.J.Smith, completed with introductory and editorial matter by Catherine Phillips All rights reserved No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data John Donne: the critical heritage/edited by A.J.Smith; completed with introductory and editorial material by Catherine Phillips p cm.—(The critical heritage series) Includes bibliographical references and index ISBN 0-415-07445-2 (cloth) Donne, John, 1572–1631–Criticism and interpretation I Smith, A.J (Albert James) II Phillips, Catherine III Series PR2248.J63 1996 821′.3—dc20 96–1910 CIP ISBN 0-203-41692-9 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-72516-6 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0-415-07445-2 (Print Edition) General Editor’s Preface This second Donne volume covers a key period of fifty years—from the remarks of Henry Morley in 1873 to Eliot’s review of the Love Poems in 1923—a halfcentury which saw the full emergence of Donne as a widely-known poet and, moreover, a powerful influence upon the development of modern poetry What enabled this process was Grosart’s great edition of 1872–3 This firmly established Donne’s standing among the great English poets, a place in the canon consolidated by the editors and critics of the time, including the notable and revealing contributions by Gosse, Chambers, Saintsbury, Dowden, Symons, Grierson, Edward Thomas, Bridges, Yeats and Pound Beyond their focus upon Donne are the wider implications of the way in which literary tastes and canons change As the late Professor Smith commented in his Preface to the earlier Donne volume (1975), ‘Donne has challenged his critics from the first, so that the successive revaluations of him tend to mirror changing critical assumptions’ (p xv) Of such challenge and change, this second volume provides the documentation we need to trace and analyse these literary and cultural processes B.C.S Contents PREFACE xiii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xiv NOTE ON THE TEXT xvi INTRODUCTION xvii Henry Morley 1873 Rosaline Orme Masson 1876 William Minto 1880 4 John Henry Shorthouse 1881 14 Alice King 1881 15 David Masson 1881 16 John Churton Collins 1881 20 A.H.Welsh 1882 22 Edmund Gosse 1883 24 10 T.J.Backus 1884 25 11 George Edward Bateman Saintsbury 1887 27 12 Jakob von Schipper 1888/95 31 13 Margaret Woods 1889 32 14 Edward Dowden 1890 33 15 W.F.Collier 1891 50 16 Edmund Gosse 1891 51 17 Gamaliel Bradford 1892 53 18 Rudyard Kipling 1893 58 19 Edmund Gosse 1893 59 vii 20 Edmund Gosse 1894 63 21 Sir Edmund Kerchever Chambers 1895 69 22 Charles Eliot Nor ton 1895 71 23 Felix E.Schelling 1895 77 24 Clyde Bowman Furst 1896/9 79 25 George Edward Bateman Saintsbury 1896 86 26 Oswald Crawfurd 1896 96 27 Anon., Dial 1896 97 28 Lionel Johnson 1896 98 29 Thomas Bird Mosher 1897 99 30 Frederick Ives Carpenter 1897 100 31 Augustus Jessopp 1897 102 32 Anon., Academy 1897 105 33 Anon., Quarterly Review 1897 107 34 Francis Thompson 1897–9 111 35 Henry Augustin Beers 1898 113 36 David Hannay 1898 115 37 George Edward Bateman Saintsbury 1898 116 38 Felix E.Schelling 1898 119 39 Edmund Gosse 1899 121 40 Anon., Athenaeum 1899 150 41 Richard Garnett 1899 153 42 Sir Leslie Stephen 1899 155 43 Arthur Symons 1899/1916 162 44 Francis Thompson 1899 170 45 Henry Augustin Beers 1899 173 46 Anon., Academy 1900 174 47 Reuben Post Halleck 1900 176 48 Anon., Nation 1900 177 viii 49 Anon., Church Quarterly Review 1900 180 50 H.M.Sanders 1900 181 51 J.W.Chadwick 1900 188 52 Anon., Quarterly Review 1900 194 53 Clarence Griffin Child 1900 201 54 Thomas Hardy 1900 202 55 Anon., Chambers’ Cyclopaedia of English Literature 1901 203 56 Anon., Quarterly Review 1902 205 57 Henry Charles Beeching 1902 206 58 William Vaughn Moody and Robert Morss Lovett 1902 208 59 Rudolf Richter 1902 210 60 Thomas Seccombe and John W.Allen 1903 211 61 A.H.Garstang 1903 215 62 Richard Garnett 1903 217 63 William John Courthope 1903 219 64 John Smith Harrison 1903 228 65 August WilhelmTrost 1904 229 66 Barrett Wendell 1904 230 67 Stephen Lucius Gwynn 1904 234 68 Frank Lusk Babbott 1905 235 69 Charles Eliot Norton 1905 237 70 Anon., Dial 1905 239 71 Geoffrey Langdon Keynes 1906 240 72 Henry Marvin Belden 1906 241 73 Martin Grove Brumbaugh 1906 243 74 Charles Crawford 1906 244 75 Wightman Fletcher Melton 1906 245 76 Herbert John Clifford Grierson 1906 248 77 Caroline Spurgeon 1907/13 253 ix 78 George Edward Bateman Saintsbury 1908 256 79 Alfred Horatio Upham 1908 260 80 George Charles Moore Smith 1908 263 81 Thomas Hardy 1908 264 82 Herbert John Clifford Grierson 1909 265 83 Janet Spens 1909 280 84 Phoebe Anne Beale Sheavyn 1909 286 85 William Macdonald Sinclair 1909 287 86 Felix E.Schelling 1910 289 87 Edward Thomas 1910/11 297 88 Edward Thomas 1912 300 89 Herbert John Clifford Grierson 1912 301 90 William Butler Yeats 1912 323 91 Edward Bliss Reed 1912 324 92 Andrew Lang 1912 330 93 Evelyn Mary Simpson (née Spearing) 1912 332 94 Anon., Nation 1913 333 95 Felix E.Schelling 1913 336 96 George Charles Moore Smith 1913 338 97 Rupert Brooke 1913 339 98 Walter de la Mare 1913 343 99 Anon., Spectator 1913 347 100 Ernest Percival Rhys 1913 351 101 Horace Ainsworth Eaton 1914 353 102 Sir Sidney Colvin 1914 369 10 Sir Edmund Kerchever Chambers 1914 372 ... fluctuations in reputation following the writer’s death For a list of volumes in the series, see the end of the book JOHN DONNE THE CRITICAL HERITAGE Volume II Edited by PROFESSOR A.J.SMITH Completed.. .JOHN DONNE: THE CRITICAL HERITAGE Volume II THE CRITICAL HERITAGE SERIES GENERAL EDITOR: B.C.SOUTHAM, M.A., B.LITT (OXON.) Formerly... the Athenaeum, The Nation and Athenaeum and A Garland for John Donne We are grateful to The Sewanee Review for permission to reprint Arthur H.Nethercot’s article, The Reputation of John Donne