Donne, John | "No man is an Island, intire of itself..."

From the Library of Clayre and Jay Michael Haft

Donne, John

Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, and Severall Steps in My Sicknes: Digested Into 1. Meditations Upon Our Humane Condition. 2. Expostulations, and Debatements with God. 3. Prayers, Upon the Severall Occasions, to Him. ... The Second Edition. London: Printed by A[ugustine]. M[athewes]. for Thomas Jones, 1624

12mo (136 x 75 mm). Type-ornament headpieces; without initial blank A1, last leaf partly sprung in binding, sheets somewhat brittle. 19th-century English speckled calf, gilt-ruled on sides, spine gilt, red morocco lettering-piece, all edges gilt; a few ink stains to sheets edges and covers, light wear at extremities.

Second edition, of three published in Donne’s lifetime. Meditation 17 contains Donne's most famous lines: "Perchance hee for whom this Bell tolls, may bee so ill, as that he knows not it tolls for him. … No man is an Island, intire of itself; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as it a Promontorie were, as well if a Mannor of they friends, or of thine owne were; Any Mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee."

REFERENCE:

STC 7034; ESTC S1877; Grolier/Donne 18; Keynes/Donne 36