ABSTRACT

John Cave (d. 1657), of Lincoln College, Oxford, graduated M.A. in 1619 and became an Anglican divine. On 3 June 1620 he wrote down a poem addressed to Donne at the head of the manuscript of Donne's poems now known as the John Cave MS. (the manuscript is in the George Arents Tobacco Collection, New York Public Library). The same poem opens the Dyce MS. (in the Victoria and Albert Museum) where it is signed, or inscribed, 'Johannes Cave'. The Dyca MS. bears the name ofits first owner, or compiler, and a date, 'Johannes Nedlam Collegio Lincolniense Marii 31 die Anno 1625'.