PREFACE

THIS section has been greatly extended from the brief lists given in the last edition of this Bibliography for the reasons mentioned. in the Preface. In the first portion an attempt has been made to give all the discoverable references written or printed during the years 1597–1699, apart from Walton's Life, which is described in an earlier section. The amplification of this list has been done largely with the help of the clues provided by Professor Wesley Milgate in his several articles contributed to Notes & Queries in 1950 and 1953. Some of the references are to passages in which other writers have apparently been indebted to Donne's poems, such as the lines in King Lear, where Shakespeare may have had the fourth Elegy in mind. Some of these are necessarily conjectural, but seem to be of enough interest to justify their inclusion. This list has been arranged chronologically and the authors' names will be found in the General Index.

During the eighteenth century Donne's poetry was almost completely neglected, and references are very few indeed. I have therefore included in the second portion biographical and critical material printed in the years 1700–1899, again arranging it chronologically.

From 1900 onwards there has been a continually rising tide of printed materials concerning Donne. It has, indeed, become almost overwhelming, and, apart from the books with Donne as their chief, or only theme, no one can hope to achieve a list which is complete—nor is it, indeed, desirable, since many contributions are too trivial to merit inclusion. For this very reason my list may be thought to be too long, but I have wished not to impose my judgment too often on those wishing to see what others have written about Donne and have therefore tried not to carry eclecticism too far. The task of making a reasonably full list of references has been lightened by using Professor William White's list, fohn Donne since1900 (Boston, 1942), and by having a list up to 1954 compiled by Professor Milgate for his own purposes but generously put by him at my disposal. The long list which has resulted is arranged alphabetically under authors' names (the contributions by any one author being chronological), and the names have not been included in the General Index.