5 02DONNE, John. Poems, By J.D. With Elegies on the Authors Death. BOUND WITH: Juvenilia, or Certaine Paradoxes and Problemes. London, 1633. Small thick quarto, contemporary full brown speckled calf rebacked, custom clamshell box. $52,000 First edition of the collected poems of the greatest of the metaphysical poets, with the first edition of his “perfectly impudent” Juvenilia, bound together in contemporary calf boards. From the famed Beeleigh Abbey library of W.A. Foyle, with his bookplate. Donne deliberately kept most of his poetry out of print, fearing to tarnish his reputation in the religious establishment. Thus almost none of his poetry appeared in print during his lifetime. “The poetry of Donne represents a sharp break with that written by his predecessors and most of his contemporaries. Whether he writes of love or devotion, Donne’s particular blend of wit and seriousness, of intense feeling, darting thought, and vast erudition, creates a fascination quite beyond the reach of easier styles and less strenuous minds” (Adams). This edition contains “the first collected edition of Donne’s poems, derived according to current scholarly thinking from manuscript sources in direct descent from the author’s papers. It has been the basis of all scholarly editions since then” (Pirie 81), and “has more authority than any other in print” (Keynes 78). Donne’s Poems is bound here with the first edition of his Juvenilia; the Juvenilia consist of “bits of logical horseplay, loaded with legal aphorisms perversely applied, and perfectly impudent in their cheerful, brassy assurance”’ (Adams). Keynes 78, 43. Pforzheimer 296. Front pastedown with small leather Beeleigh Abbey label of famed bookseller and collector William A. Foyle. Light embrowning overall; title page with small repair to outer margin, a few leaves with faint waterstaining to lower portions. A desirable copy in contemporary calf of this literary landmark. “Love, All Alike, No Season Knows, Nor Clyme”
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