Based on an exhaustive study of the manuscripts and printed editions in which these poems have appeared, the fifth volume in the series of The Variorum Edition of the Poetry of John Donne presents newly edited critical texts of the five canonical satires and "Metempsychosis" and details the genealogical history of each accompanied by a thorough prose discussion. The analysis contained in the volume shows that Donne revised each of the poems and explains how readings from the competing versions were intermingled in the early editions and transmitted to subsequent generations. The volume also presents a comprehensive organized digest of the critical-scholarly commentary on these poems from Donne s time through 2001."

From reviews of previous volumes:

"This variorum edition will be the basis of all future Donne scholarship." Chronique

"Academic libraries and specialists in Renaissance and 17th-century studies should feel compelled to own each and every volume of this series." Seventeenth Century News

"An occasion for celebration. Among the most ambitious and valuable collaborative scholarly enterprises at the end of the twentieth century. Superb." Early Modern Literary
Studies

This latest addition to the Donne variorum, the third to appear in a projected eight-volume series, presents a newly edited critical text of Donne s elegies and a comprehensive variorum commentary. As with previous volumes, Volume 2 is based on a study of all known manuscript sources and significant printed editions of Donne s poetry and on an examination of the criticism and scholarship of the past four centuries."

Praise for previous volumes:
"This variorum edition will bethe basis of all future Donne scholarship." -- Chronique

Thisis the 4th volume of The Variorum Edition of the Poetry of John Donne to appear.This volume presents a newly edited critical text of the Holy Sonnets and acomprehensive digest of the critical-scholarly commentary on them from Donne's timethrough 1995. The editors identify and print both an earlier and a revised authorialsequence of sonnets, as well as presenting the scribal collection -- which containsunique authorial versions of several of the sonnets -- inscribed by Donne's friendRowland Woodward in the Westmoreland manuscript.

"The appearance of the first volume... is an occasion for celebration. Among the most ambitious and valuable collaborative scholarly enterprises at the end of the twentieth century... " Claude J. Summers, Early Modern Literary Studies

..". especially valuable for its wide-ranging and reliable summaries of textual and critical commentary on these works... This variorum edition will be the basis of all future Donne scholarship." Biblioteque d Humanisme et Renaissance

..". the most important collaborative project in 17th-century studies in recent history... " Seventeenth-Century News

A major editorial and interpretive undertaking, this edition includes a newly edited critical text based on exhaustive study of all known manuscripts and significant printed editions of Donne s poetry and a complete digest of critical and scholarly commentary on the poetry from Donne s time to the present."

This book presents a comprehensive digest of general and topical commentary on John Donne's Songs and Sonets from the early 17th century through 1999. Arranged chronologically within sections, the material in the present volume is organized under the following chapter headings: General Commentary; Autobiography and Persona; Critical Reception; Dating, Publication History, and Manuscript Tradition; Donne's Originality: Praise and Blame; Dramatic Elements; T. S. Eliot; Imagery; Language and Rhetoric; Love and Sexual Imagery; Mannerism and Baroque; Medievalism; Paradox; Petrarchism; Platonism; Psychological Analysis; Religion; Science and the New Learning; Versification; Wit and Metaphysical Conceit; Women. This book was begun under the direction of Albert C. Labriola, who served as the Volume Commentary Editor until his death in March 2009. Completed by his students and colleagues with the Variorum project, the volume is dedicated to Professor Labriola's memory.