National Library of Scotland, MS 6504

MS 6504

A quarto verse miscellany, in several hands, written from both ends, including (ff. 3r-49v) 49 poems by Donne in a single neat secretary hand, also responsible for poems by others on ff. 83r, 88r-90r, 4r-11v rev., later notes and two poems by Donne in other hands on the remaining leaves, 124 leaves, in contemporary vellum. c.1620[-76].

The later material including medical notes written c.1665-76 by Sir John Wedderburn (1599-1679), royal physician.

Cited in IELM, I.i (1980), as the Wedderburn MS: DnJ Δ 55. Discussed in Alan MacColl, A New Manuscript of Donne's Poems, RES, NS 19 (1968), 293-5.

ff. 3r-8r
DnJ 2846: John Donne, Satyre IV ('Well. I may now receive, and die. My sinne')

Copy, headed in the margin Sat: 4, subscribed J: D:.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 158-68. Milgate, Satires, pp. 14-22. Shawcross, No. 4.

ff. 9r-11r
DnJ 2784: John Donne, Satyre II ('Sir. though (I thank God for it) I do hate')

Copy, headed in the margin Sat: 5, subscribed J: D:.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 149-54. Milgate, Satires, pp. 7-10. Shawcross, No. 2.

ff. 12r-13r
DnJ 3083: John Donne, The Storme ('Thou which art I, ('tis nothing to be soe)')

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First published (in full) in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 175-7. Milgate, Satires, pp. 55-7. Shawcross, No. 109.

ff. 13v-14v
DnJ 567: John Donne, The Calme ('Our storme is past, and that storms tyrannous rage')

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First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 178-80. Milgate, Satires, pp. 57-9. Shawcross, No. 110.

ff. 15r-16r
DnJ 3503: John Donne, To Sr Henry Wotton ('Sir, more then kisses, letters mingle Soules')

Copy, headed To Mr. H: W:.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 180-2. Milgate, Satires, pp. 71-3. Shawcross, No. 112.

ff. 16v-17r
DnJ 3298: John Donne, To Mr Rowland Woodward ('Like one who'in her third widdowhood doth professe')

Copy, headed To Mr. R: W:, subscribed J: D:.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 185-6. Milgate, Satires, pp. 69-70. Shawcross, No. 113.

ff. 17v-18r
DnJ 3472: John Donne, To Sr Henry Wootton ('Here's no more newes then vertue, I may as well')

Copy, headed To Mr. H: W: 20 Jul: 1598 at Courte, subscribed J: D:.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 187-8. Milgate, Satires, pp. 73-4. Shawcross, No. 111.

ff. 18v-19v
DnJ 67: John Donne, The Anagram ('Marry, and love thy Flavia, for, shee')

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First published as Elegie II in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 80-2 (as Elegie II). Gardner, Elegies, pp. 21-2. Shawcross, No. 17. Variorum, 2 (2000), pp. 217-18.

f. 20r
DnJ 1047: John Donne, Elegie on the L.C. ('Sorrow, who to this house scarce knew the way')

Copy, headed Elegye, subscribed J D.

First published, as Elegie VI, in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 287. Gardner, Elegies, p. 26 (as A Funeral Elegy). Variorum, 6 (1995), p. 103, as Elegia.

f. 20v
DnJ 970: John Donne, The Dreame ('Image of her whom I love')

Copy, headed Elegye, subscribed J D.

First published, as Elegie, in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 95 (as Elegie X). Gardner, Elegies, p. 58. Shawcross, No. 35.

f. 21r
DnJ 1849: John Donne, The Legacie ('When I dyed last, and, Deare, I dye')

Copy, headed Elegye, subscribed J D.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 20. Gardner, Elegies, p. 50. Shawcross, No. 43.

f. 21v
DnJ 511: John Donne, The broken heart ('He is starke mad, who ever sayes')

Copy, untitled, subscribed J D.

Lines 1-16 first published in A Helpe to Memory and Discourse (London, 1630), pp. 45-6. Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 48-9. Gardner, Elegies, pp. 51-2. Shawcross, No. 29.

f. 22r-v
DnJ 2465: John Donne, Oh, let mee not serve so, as those men serve

Copy, headed Elegy, subscribed J D.

First published, as Elegie VII, in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 87-9 (as Elegie VI). Gardner, Elegies, pp. 10-11. Shawcross, No. 12. Variorum, 2 (2000), pp. 110-11.

f. 23r-v
DnJ 273: John Donne, The Autumnall ('No Spring, nor Summer Beauty hath such grace')

Copy, headed Elegie, subscribed J D.

First published, as Elegie. The Autumnall, in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 92-4 (as Elegie IX). Gardner, Elegies, pp. 27-8. Shawcross, No. 50. Variorum, 2 (2000), pp. 277-8.

f. 24r
DnJ 3635: John Donne, The triple Foole ('I am two fooles, I know')

Copy, untitled, subscribed J. D.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 16. Gardner, Elegies, p. 52. Shawcross, No. 40.

f. 24v
DnJ 3673: John Donne, Twicknam garden ('Blasted with sighs, and surrounded with teares')

Copy, untitled, subscribed J D.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 28-9. Gardner, Elegies, pp. 83-4. Shawcross, No. 51.

f. 25r-v
DnJ 3745: John Donne, A Valediction: forbidding mourning ('As virtuous men passe mildly away')

Copy, headed Valediction, subscribed J D.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 49-51. Gardner, Elegies, pp. 62-4. Shawcross, No. 31.

f. 26r
DnJ 1980: John Donne, Loves Alchymie ('Some that have deeper digg'd loves Myne then I')

Copy, untitled, subscribed J: D:.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 39-40. Gardner, Elegies, p. 81. Shawcross, No. 59.

ff. 26v-7v
DnJ 1080: John Donne, Elegie on the Lady Marckham ('Man is the World, and death th' Ocean')

Copy, headed Elegy Funerall vppon the Death of the Lady Markham, subscribed J D.

This MS recorded in Milgate.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 279-81. Shawcross, No. 149. Milgate, Epithalamions, pp. 55-9. Variorum, 6 (1995), pp. 112-13.

ff. 28r-9r
DnJ 1023: John Donne, Elegie on Mris Boulstred ('Death I recant, and say, unsaid by mee')

Copy, headed Elegy Funerall vpo the Death of Mris Boulstrood, subscribed J D.

This MS recorded in Milgate.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 282-4. Shawcross, No. 150. Milgate, Epithalamions, p. 59-61. Variorum, 6 (1995), pp. 129-30.

ff. 29v-30r
DnJ 803: John Donne, The Crosse ('Since Christ embrac'd the Crosse it selfe, dare I')

Copy, headed Of the Crosse, subscribed J D.

This MS recorded in Gardner.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 331-3. Gardner, Divine Poems, pp. 26-8. Shawcross, No. 181.

ff. 30v-1r
DnJ 1815: John Donne, A Lecture upon the Shadow ('Stand still, and I will read to thee')

Copy, untitled, subscribed J D.

First published, as Song, in Poems (1635). Grierson, I, 71-2. Gardner, Elegies, pp. 78-9. Shawcross, No. 30.

f. 31r
DnJ 3674: John Donne, Twicknam garden ('Blasted with sighs, and surrounded with teares')

Copy of lines 1-8, untitled, deleted.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 28-9. Gardner, Elegies, pp. 83-4. Shawcross, No. 51.

ff. 31r-2r
DnJ 603: John Donne, The Canonization ('For Godsake hold your tongue, and let me love')

Copy, headed Canonization, subscribed J D.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 14-15. Gardner, Elegies, pp. 73-5. Shawcross, No. 39.

f. 32r-v
DnJ 2252: John Donne, Lovers infinitenesse ('If yet I have not all thy love')

Copy, untitled, subscribed J. D.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 17-18. Gardner, Elegies, pp. 77-8. Shawcross, No. 41.

ff. 32v-3r
DnJ 29: John Donne, Aire and Angels ('Twice or thrice had I loved thee')

Copy, untitled, subscribed J D.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 22. Gardner, Elegies, pp. 75-6. Shawcross, No. 45.

f. 33r-v
DnJ 3117: John Donne, The Sunne Rising ('Busie old foole, unruly Sunne')

Copy, untitled, subscribed J D.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 11-12. Gardner, Elegies, pp. 72-3. Shawcross, No. 36.

f. 34r
DnJ 2119: John Donne, Loves growth ('I scarce beleeve my love to be so pure')

Copy, headed Springe, subscribed J D.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 33-4. Gardner, Elegies, pp. 76-7. Shawcross, No. 54.

ff. 34v-5v
DnJ 3822: John Donne, A Valediction: of the booke ('I'll tell thee now (deare Love) what thou shalt doe')

Copy, untitled, subscribed J D.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 29-32. Gardner, Elegies, pp. 67-9. Shawcross, No. 52.

ff. 35v-6r
DnJ 1464: John Donne, The good-morrow ('I wonder by my troth, what thou, and I')

Copy, untitled, subscribed J D.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 7-8. Gardner, Elegies, pp. 70-1. Shawcross, No. 32.

ff. 36r-7r
DnJ 3792: John Donne, A Valediction: of my name, in the window ('My name engrav'd herein')

Copy, subscribed J D.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 25-8. Gardner, Elegies, pp. 64-6. Shawcross, No. 49.

f. 37v
DnJ 3965: John Donne, Witchcraft by a picture ('I fixe mine eye on thine, and there')

Copy, headed Songe, subscribed J. D.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 45-6. Gardner, Elegies, p. 37. Shawcross, No. 26.

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DnJ 1333: John Donne, A Feaver ('Oh doe not die, for I shall hate')

Copy, headed Feuver, subscribed J D.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 21. Gardner, Elegies, pp. 61-2. Shawcross, No. 44.

f. 38v
DnJ 2181: John Donne, Loves Usury ('For every houre that thou wilt spare mee now')

Copy, untitled, subscribed J D.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 13-14. Gardner, Elegies, p. 44. Shawcross, No. 38.

ff. 39r-40r
DnJ 2570: John Donne, The Perfume ('Once, and but once found in thy company')

Copy, untitled, subscribed J D.

First published, as Elegie IV, in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 84-6 (as Elegie IV). Gardner, Elegies, pp. 7-9. Shawcross, No. 10. Variorum, 2 (2000), pp. 72-3.

ff. 40v-2v
DnJ 394: John Donne, The Bracelet ('Not that in colour it was like thy haire')

Copy, untitled, subscribed J D.

First published, as Eleg. XII. The Bracelet, in Poems (1635). Grierson, I, 96-100 (as Elegie XI). Gardner, Elegies, pp. 1-4. Shawcross, No. 8. Variorum, 2 (2000), pp. 5-7.

f. 43r
DnJ 2930: John Donne, Song ('Goe, and catche a falling starre')

Copy, untitled, subscribed J D.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 8-9. Gardner, Elegies, pp. 29-30. Shawcross, No. 33.

f. 43v
DnJ 3017: John Donne, Song ('Sweetest love, I do not goe')

Copy, untitled, subscribed J D.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 18-19. Gardner, Elegies, pp. 31-2. Shawcross, No. 42.

f. 44r-v
DnJ 3921: John Donne, The Will ('Before I sigh my last gaspe, let me breath')

Copy, untitled, subscribed J D.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 56-8. Gardner, Elegies, pp. 54-5. Shawcross, No. 66.

f. 45r-v
DnJ 841: John Donne, The Curse ('Who ever guesses, thinks, or dreames he knowes')

Copy, subscribed J D.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 41-2. Gardner, Elegies, pp. 40-1. Shawcross, No. 61.

ff. 45v-6r
DnJ 1655: John Donne, The Indifferent ('I can love both faire and browne')

Copy, untitled, subscribed J D.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 12-13. Gardner, Divine Poems, pp. 41-2. Shawcross, No. 37.

f. 46r-v
DnJ 448: John Donne, Breake of day (''Tis true, 'tis day. what though it be?')

Copy, untitled, subscribed J D

First published in William Corkine, Second Book of Ayres (London, 1612), sig. B1v. Grierson, I, 23. Gardner, Elegies, pp. 35-6. Shawcross, No. 46.

ff. 46v-7r
DnJ 2019: John Donne, Loves Deitie ('I long to talke with some old lovers ghost')

Copy, subscribed J D.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 54. Gardner, Elegies, pp. 47-8. Shawcross, No. 64.

f. 47r
DnJ 1373: John Donne, The Flea ('Marke but this flea, and marke in this')

Copy, subscribed J D.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 40-1. Gardner, Elegies, p. 53. Shawcross, No. 60.

f. 47v
DnJ 677: John Donne, Communitie ('Good wee must love, and must hate ill')

Copy, untitled, subscribed J D.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 32-3. Gardner, Elegies, pp. 33-4. Shawcross, No. 53.

f. 48r
DnJ 3993: John Donne, Womans constancy ('Now thou hast lov'd me one whole day')

Copy, untitled, subscribed J D.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 9. Gardner, Elegies, pp. 42-3. Shawcross, No. 34.

f. 48r
DnJ 1304: John Donne, Faustus keepes his sister and a whore

Copy, subscribed J D.

First published, and attributed to Donne, in John T. Shawcross, John Donne and Drummond's Manuscripts, AN&Q (March 1967), 104-5. Reprinted in Shawcross (1968), No. 102. Variorum, 8 (1995), p. 12.

f. 48r
DnJ 1747: John Donne, A lame begger ('I am unable, yonder begger cries')

Copy, untitled and here beginning I can not stand, nor sitt, the Begger cryes, subscribed J D.

First published in Thomas Deloney, Strange Histories (London, 1607), sig. E6. Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 76. Milgate, Satires, p. 51. Shawcross, No. 88. Variorum, 8 (1995), pp. 7 (as Zoppo) and 10.

ff. 48v-9v
DnJ 1238: John Donne, The Expostulation ('To make the doubt cleare, that no woman's true')

Copy, headed Elegye.

First published, as Elegie, in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 108-10 (as Elegie XV). Gardner, Elegies, pp. 94-6 (among her Dubia). Shawcross, No. 22. Variorum, 2 (2000), pp. 369-70.

ff. 53v-4r
ClE 68: Edward Hyde, First Earl of Clarendon, Articles of High Treason and other hainous misdemeanours agst Edward, Earle of Clarendon, Lord Chancellor, exhibited by Earl of Bristol, 10 July 1663 ('')

Copy, in a mixed hand, untitled.

ff. 55r-7v
ClE 83: Edward Hyde, First Earl of Clarendon, The Humble Petition and Address of Clarendon in 1667 ('')

Copy.

Petition beginning I cannot express the insupportable trouble and grief of mind I sustain.... Published as To the Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament Assembled: The Humble Petition and Address of Clarendon, [in London, 1667?], and subsequently reprinted widely, sometimes under the title News from Dunkirk-house: or, Clarendon's Farewell to England Dec 3 1667.

f. 85r
WoH 152: Sir Henry Wotton, A Poem written by Sir Henry Wotton in his Youth ('O faithless world, and thy most faithless part')

Copy, untitled.

First published in Francis Davison, Poetical Rapsody (London, 1602), p. 157. As A poem written by Sir Henry Wotton, in his youth, in Reliquiae Wottonianae (London, 1651), p. 517. Hannah (1845), pp. 3-5. Edited and texts discussed in Ted-Larry Pebworth, Sir Henry Wotton's O Faithless World: The Transmission of a Coterie Poem and a Critical Old-Spelling Edition, Analytical & Enumerative Bibliography, 5/4 (1981), 205-31.

f. 85r
WoH 248: Sir Henry Wotton, A Farewell to the Vanities of the World ('Farewell, ye gilded follies, pleasing troubles!')

Copy, untitled, subscribed H W.

First published, as a farewell to the vanities of the world, and some say written by Dr. D[onne], but let them bee writ by whom they will, in Izaak Walton, The Complete Angler (London, 1653), pp. 243-5. Hannah (1845), pp. 109-13. The Poems of John Donne, ed. Herbert J.C. Grierson, 2 vols (Oxford, 1912), I, 465-7.

f. 85v
WoH 41: Sir Henry Wotton, The Character of a Happy Life ('How happy is he born and taught')

Copy, untitled, subscribed H W:.

First published in Sir Thomas Overbury, A Wife, 5th impression (London, 1614). Reliquiae Wottonianae (London, 1651), pp. 522-3. Hannah (1845), pp. 28-31. Some texts of this poem discussed in C.F. Main, Wotton's The Character of a Happy Life, The Library, 5th Ser. 10 (1955), 270-4, and in Ted-Larry Pebworth, New Light on Sir Henry Wotton's The Character of a Happy Life, The Library, 5th Ser. 33 (1978), 223-6 (plus plates).

f. 86r
CwT 787: Thomas Carew, A Song ('In her faire cheekes two pits doe lye')

Copy, here beginning In yor fayr Cheekes two Pittes theare lye and subscribed B.R..

First published in Poems (1640). Dunlap, p. 105.

f. 86v
HoJ 35: John Hoskyns, Absence ('Absence heare my protestation')

Copy, untitled, here beginning Absence heare thou my protestation, subscribed J. H.

First published in Francis Davison, A Poetical Rapsody (London, 1602). The Poems of John Donne, ed. Herbert J.C. Grierson, 2 vols (Oxford, 1912), pp. 428-9. Osborn, No. XXIV (pp. 192-3).

f. 87r-v
HoJ 177: John Hoskyns, Loue is a foolish melancholie

Copy, untitled, subscribed J: H.

Osborn, No. XXII (p. 190).

f. 90r
DnJ 941: John Donne, The Dreame ('Deare love, for nothing lesse then thee')

Copy of the first stanza, in a rugged secretary hand, headed On his Dream to his Mistres awaking him.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 37-8. Gardner, Elegies, pp. 79-80. Shawcross, No. 57.

f. 90v
PeW 114: William Herbert, third Earl of Pembroke, 'Tis Love breeds Love in me, and cold Disdain

Copy, in a rugged secretary hand, untitled, headed B Redier.

Poems (1660), pp. 4-5, superscribed R. Krueger, p. 3, among Poems by Pembroke and Rudyerd.

f. 91r
PeW 46: William Herbert, third Earl of Pembroke, If her disdain least change in you can move

Copy, in a rugged secretary hand, untitled, subscribed E of pembrok.

First published in 1635. Poems (1660), pp. 3-5, superscribed P.. Krueger, p. 2, among Poems by Pembroke and Rudyerd.

ff. 91v-2v
DnJ 1111: John Donne, Elegie upon the Death of Mistress Boulstred ('Language thou art too narrow, and too weake')

Copy, in a secretary hand, headed Elegie.

First published, as Elegie, in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 284-6 (as Elegie. Death). Shawcross, No. 151 (as Elegie: Death). Milgate, Epithalmions, pp. 61-3. Variorum, 6 (1995), pp. 146-7.

ff. 4r-11r rev.
OvT 23: Sir Thomas Overbury, A Wife ('Each woman is a brief of woman kind')

Copy, in the neat secretary hand, subscribed Sr T: O:.

First published, as A Wife now the Widdow of Sir T. Ouerbury, in London, 1614. Rimbault, pp. 33-45. Beecher, pp. 190-8.