The Psalmes of David
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Date
2007-01
Authors
Sidney, Philip, Sir, 1554-1586
Grosart, Alexander Balloch, 1827-1899
Bear, Risa Stephanie, 1949-
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
R.S. Bear
Abstract
Description
The text is based on the edition by Alexander Grosart, who used the Woodford Ms. in the Bodleian Library, collating with the Trinity College Ms. and the Davies Ms., and published in The Complete Poems of Sir Philip Sidney, Chatto and Windus (Picadilly, 1877). It was transcribed, along with Grosart's "Note," by Risa S. Bear in January 2007. This represents a departure from the usual RE practice of working to emulate the contemporary experience of the printed book, as the Psalms did not appear in book form until 1823, in an unsatisfactory edition. That Grosart makes free with some corrections of his own, we do not doubt, and refer the reader to the Note accordingly. Grosart accented "-ed" word endings to cue pronunciation to metre; this practice has been abandoned in RE as superfluous for the trained reader.
We'd love to provide the remainder of the Psalms as rendered by the Countess of Pembroke, but an adequate edition of these did not appear until modern times, and RE is mainly dependent upon older editions, and where possible editions that appeared in contemporary codex book form. We refer the reader to the excellent The Collected Works of Mary Sidney Herbert, Countesse of Pembroke, Hannay, Kinnamon and Brennan, 1998, Vol. II. for Psalms 44-150, with variants and a thorough discussion of the manuscripts.