ABSTRACT
The contemporary reputation of seventeenth-century poets depended much upon the mode of publication which was used for their work. In John Donne's lifetime, his Songs and Sonets circulated in manuscript amongst a relatively privileged readership: only after his death were the erotic poems penned by the Dean of St Paul's revealed in print to wider public. Weighing the textual variants in so short poem cannot produce any certain conclusions, since several readings can be accounted for in more than one way. The supposition is strengthened by a glance at Rochester's usage. The text in H is certainly corrupt, having passed through scribal and probably also memorial transmission. It deserves to stand in its own right, perhaps as an example of a communally-crafted coffee-house text, but perhaps as an instance of Marvell himself trying to demonstrate his heterosexual credentials.
