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Notes
I have not followed the theories of Paul Mass in Textual Criticism (1958) or J. Burke Severs' "Quentin's Theory of Text Criticism," English Institute Annual 1941 (1942), pp. 65-93, especially their assumption that they know from the beginning which are the erroneous readings; nor have I used the metacritical principles of Edwin Wolf II in "'If shadows be a picture's excellence': An Experiment in Critical Bibliography," PMLA, LXIII (1948), 831-857, or J. B. Leishman in "You Meaner Beauties of the Night," The Library, 4th ser., XXVI (1945), 99-121, or Roger Bennett in The Complete Poems of John Donne (1942). Mr. Leishman explicitly denies that any "mechanical or scientific method will enable an editor to decide which readings are corrupt and which are authentic" when he finds variants in manuscript miscellanies. In his unpublished Oxford dissertation, Mr. T. S. Clayton undertook an analysis of the texts of each of Suckling's poems, but he based his test on the first printed edition.
I am indebted to Mr. T. S. Clayton for calling this manuscript and Harvard 703 to my attention. Mr. Clayton also allowed me to examine his unpublished dissertation submitted to Wadham College, Oxford, in which he came to different conclusions about the relationships of the witnesses. Mr. W. H. Bond kindly checked readings in the Harvard manuscript.
Mr. R. W. Hill, Keeper of Manuscripts, New York Public Library, generously supplied the above information, but he thinks that, although the handwriting has some similarities with that of Halliwell-Phillipps, the manuscript is probably older, early rather than mid-nineteenth century.
For further evidence of corruption in Fragmenta, see my article, "The Canon of Sir John Suckling's Poems," SP, LVII (1960), 492-518. Thorn-Drury first noticed Fenton's remark; see T. S. Clayton, "Thorn-Drury's Marginalia on Sir John Suckling," N&Q, n.s., VI (1959), 148-150.
Transcripts of the letters are in Berry, op. cit. and an additional letter in Clayton's "Sir John Suckling and the Cranfields."
The symbol Σ, invented by Greg, refers to the rest of the manuscripts other than the ones specified.
Letters and Dispatches of Thomas Earl of Strafforde, II (1740), 114, in a letter dated October 9, 1637. P. H. Gray, op. cit., argues convincingly that Garrard is talking about Suckling's poem.
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