Editing Musophilus

{{Short description|1599 poem by Samuel Daniel}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{italic title}}
[[File:Samuel Daniel's Musophilus 1599 title page.png|thumb|Title page from the ''Poeticall Essayes'' (1599)]]
'''''Musophilus''''' is a long poem by [[Samuel Daniel]], first published in 1599 in his ''Poetical Essays''.{{sfn|Daniel|1599}}

Among Daniel's most characteristic works, it is a [[dialogue]] between a [[courtier]] and a man of letters, and is a general defence of learning, and in particular of poetic learning as an instrument in the education of the perfect courtier or man of action.{{sfn|Hiller|Groves|1998|pp=109–111}}{{sfn|Pitcher|2017|pp=6–7}} It is addressed to [[Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke|Fulke Greville]].

==Textual history==

Daniel first published ''Musophilus'' in his ''Poeticall Essayes'' of 1599.{{sfn|Hiller|Groves|1998|p=109}} The poem was published again in 1601/1602, largely unchanged except in accidentals such as punctuation, and in the deletion of the final three stanzas,{{sfn|Himelick|1965|p=101}} reducing the poem from 1002 to 984 lines. However, the text published in 1607 witnessed not only frequent revisions affecting diction and rhythm,{{sfn|Himelick|1965|pp=44-45}} but also extensive cuts, deleting nearly 200 lines.{{sfn|Himelick|1965|p=43}} A few further alterations were made for the 1611 edition, including a new dedicatory poem to [[Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke|Fulke Greville]], replacing the dedicatory sonnet to him in all other editions.{{sfn|Sprague|1930|pp=203-204}} Modern editors tend to be critical of these revisions, referring to them as "mutilations"{{sfn|Himelick|1965|p=101}} that "all but ruined" the poem,{{sfn|Sprague|1930|p=xxxi}} or, more diplomatically, "not always to the poem's advantage".{{sfn|Hiller|Groves|1998|p=111}} The posthumous ''Whole Works'' of 1623 returned to the 1601 version as its basis.{{sfn|Himelick|1965|p=101}}

All modern editions use either the 1599 text (Sprague;{{sfn|Sprague|1930|p=viii}} Hiller & Groves{{sfn|Hiller|Groves|1998|p=111}}) or the 1623 text (Grosart;{{sfn|Sprague|1930|p=203}} Himelick{{sfn|Himelick|1965|p=101}}) as their copy-texts.

==Versification==

The poem is introduced by a dedicatory [[Spenserian sonnet]]: 14 lines of [[iambic pentameter]] rhyming '''ABAB BCBC CDCD EE'''.{{efn|These notes pertain to the text of the first edition of 1599. The texts of the 1601 and 1623 editions are identical in verse structure, except for the deletion of the final 3 ('''ABABAB''') stanzas. The texts of 1607 and 1611 are significantly shorter. The edition of 1611 replaces the dedicatory sonnet with a 36-line iambic pentameter poem in 2 verse paragraphs: the first comprising 6 quatrains and 1 closing couplet; the second comprising 2 quatrains and 1 closing couplet. All quatrains rime '''ABAB''' except the 4th, which rimes '''ABBA'''.}}

The poem proper is written entirely in iambic pentameter with rimes forming a variety of stanzas. 118 stanzas (over 2/3 of the poem) are 6-line stanzas riming '''ABABAB'''. Interspersed with these are 14 [[ottava rima]] stanzas riming '''ABABABCC''', 4 ''[[Venus and Adonis (Shakespeare poem)|Venus and Adonis]]'' stanzas riming '''ABABCC''', and a single heroic quatrain riming '''ABAB'''. These rime schemes might be thought of as the first 4, first 6, last 6, and all 8 lines of an ottava rima stanza.

Finally, lines 727-880{{efn|In Hiller & Groves's numbering system;{{sfn|Hiller|Groves|1998|pp=139-145}} other editions number differently.}} form an unbroken series of 51 [[tercet]]s of [[terza rima]] (riming '''ABA BCB CDC'''...) with 1 final line to complete the central rime of the final tercet (...'''YZY Z'''). Even this quite different structure can be seen as corresponding with the other stanzas: if conceptualized as 6-line stanzas (as modern editions do), the resulting rime scheme '''ABABCB''' is only 1 rime removed from the main stanza of the poem, the interloping '''C''' providing the rime that links to the next stanza.

The relations of these rime schemes are tabulated below as Philocosmus (Musophilus's skeptical interlocutor) begins their dialogue by challenging him as to the practical value of poetry.
<blockquote>
{|
! ''Musophilus'', first stanza (ottava rima){{sfn|Hiller|Groves|1998|p=112}} || OR{{pad|1em}} || SIX{{pad|1em}} || TR×2{{pad|1em}} || HQ{{pad|1em}} || V&A{{pad|1em}}
|-
| Fond man, Musophilus, that thus dost spend || '''A''' || '''A''' || '''A''' || '''A''' || 
|-
| In an ungainful art thy dearest days, || '''B''' || '''B''' || '''B''' || '''B''' || 
|-
| Tiring thy wits and toiling to no end || '''A''' || '''A''' || '''A''' || '''A''' ||  '''A'''
|-
| But to attain that idle smoke of praise, || '''B''' || '''B''' || '''B''' || '''B''' || '''B'''
|-
| Now, when this busy world cannot attend || '''A''' || '''A''' || '''C''' || || '''A'''
|-
| Th' untimely music of neglected lays; || '''B''' || '''B''' || '''B''' || || '''B'''
|-
| Other delights than these, other desires || '''C''' || || || || '''C'''
|-
| This wiser profit-seeking age requires. || '''C''' || || || || '''C'''
|}
</blockquote>

==Notes and references==
===Notes===
{{notelist}}
===References===
{{reflist|16em}}

==Bibliography==
===Early editions===
Listed are the four editions (with one reissue) published in Daniel's lifetime; plus the ''Whole Works'' of 1623, published posthumously by Daniel's publisher, close friend, and executor, Simon Waterson, with Daniel's brother [[John Danyel|John]].
* {{cite book |last=Daniel |first=Samuel |author-link=Samuel Daniel |title=The Poeticall Essayes of Sam. Danyel |date=1599 |publisher=P. Short for Simon Waterson |location=London |oclc=1136676109 |url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=eebo;idno=A19834.0001.001}}
* {{cite book |author-mask=7 |last=Daniel |first=Samuel |author-link=Samuel Daniel |title=The VVorks of Samuel Daniel Newly Augmented |date=1602 |orig-year=1601 |oclc=1269301730}}
* {{cite book |author-mask=7 |last=Daniel |first=Samuel |author-link=Samuel Daniel |title=Certaine Small Workes Heretofore Divulged by Samuel Daniel one of the Groomes of the Queenes Maiesties priuie Chamber, & now againe by him corrected and augmented |date=1607 |publisher=I[ohn] W[indet] for Simon Waterson |location=London |oclc=606547933}}
* {{cite book |author-mask=7 |last=Daniel |first=Samuel |author-link=Samuel Daniel |title=Certaine Small Workes Heretofore Divulged by Samuel Daniel one of the Groomes of the Queenes Maiesties most Honourable priuie Chamber, and now againe by him corrected and augmented |date=1611 |publisher=I[ohn] L[egat] for Simon Waterson |location=London |oclc=216696681}}
* {{cite book |author-mask=7 |last=Daniel |first=Samuel |author-link=Samuel Daniel |title=The Whole Workes of Samuel Daniel Esquire in Poetrie |date=1623 |publisher=Nicholas Okes for Simon Waterson |location=London |oclc=7020009}}

===Modern editions===
* {{cite book |last=Daniel |first=Samuel |author-link=Samuel Daniel |editor-last=Grosart |editor-first=Alexander Balloch |editor-link=Alexander Balloch Grosart |title=The Complete Works in Verse and Prose of Samuel Daniel |date=1885 |publisher=Hazell, Watson and Viney |location=London |volume=1 |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924012959916 |ref={{harvid|Grosart|1885}}}}
* {{cite book |author-mask=7 |last=Daniel |first=Samuel |author-link=Samuel Daniel |editor-last=Sprague |editor-first=Arthur Colby |title=Poems and a Defence of Ryme |date=1930 |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, MA |url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=genpub;idno=ABW8036.0001.001 |oclc=832812101 |ref={{harvid|Sprague|1930}}}}
* {{cite book |author-mask=7 |last=Daniel |first=Samuel |author-link=Samuel Daniel |editor-last=Himelick |editor-first=Raymond |title=Samuel Daniel's Musophilus: Containing A General Defense of all Learning |date=1965 |publisher=Purdue University Studies |location=West Lafayette, IN |oclc=725970351 |ref={{harvid|Himelick|1965}}}}
* {{cite book |author-mask=7 |last=Daniel |first=Samuel |author-link=Samuel Daniel |editor-last1=Hiller |editor-first1=Geoffrey G. |editor-last2=Groves |editor-first2=Peter L. |title=Samuel Daniel: Selected Poetry and A Defense of Rhyme |date=1998 |publisher=Pegasus Press |location=Asheville, NC |isbn=978-1889818047 |oclc=39116681 |ref={{harvid|Hiller|Groves|1998}}}}
===Other references===
* {{cite web |last=Pitcher |first=John |title=Samuel Daniel: New and Future Research |url=https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935338.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199935338-e-88 |website=Oxford Handbooks Online |year=2017 |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935338.013.88 |isbn=978-0-19-993533-8}}

==External links==
* [http://www.luminarium.org/renascence-editions/daniel2.html "Musophilus" at Renascence Editions]

[[Category:1599 books]]
[[Category:1599 poems]]
[[Category:British poems]]
[[Category:Works by Samuel Daniel]]