Lot 170: DONNE, JOHN.

Letters to Severall Persons of Honour. Printed by J.Flesher, for Richard Marriot, 1651

4to, first edition, first issue, large paper copy, near-contemporary annotations and glosses by readers in margins throughout (e.g. "Popish knavery & cruelty", "only y^e Jesuits", "Unintelligible scholastick nonsense", etc. and identification of many references) and annotations on a preliminary blank (with anecdotes about Donne), contemporary sheep, lacking engraved portrait frontispiece and final blank (?misbound before preliminary blank A1), final leaves creased at lower corners, Ss1-Ss3 torn or repaired, Ss1 with some loss not affecting text, endpapers browned, rebacked, upper joint split, worn and rubbed

Wing D1864; Keynes Donne 55; Pforzheimer 295

the principal printed collection of donne's letters, edited by his son John Donne the younger (1604-63). A less than admirable figure in his personal life, the younger Donne was also less than trustworthy as an editor. The majority of the poet's letters represented in this collection (printed probably from a collection of transcripts rather than from the originals) were probably addressed to his friend Sir Henry Goodere, but the addressee's name was sometimes changed to make the letters seem more representative of Donne's circle in general.