l. 13. _Where mis-devotion doth command._ The unanimity of the earlier
editions and the MSS. shows clearly that 'Mass-devotion' (which
Chambers adopts) is merely an ingenious conjecture of the _1669_
editor. Donne uses the word frequently, e.g.:
Here in a place, where miss-devotion frames
A thousand Prayers to Saints, whose very names
The ancient Church knew not, &c.
_Of the Progresse of the Soule_, p. 266, ll. 511-13.
and: 'This mis-devotion, and left-handed piety, of praying for the
dead.' _Sermons_ 80. 77. 780.
l. 17. _You shalbe._ I have recorded this reading of several MSS.
because the poem is probably addressed to Mrs. Herbert and Donne may
have so written. His discrimination of 'thou' and 'you' is very marked
throughout the poems. 'Thou' is the pronoun of feeling and intimacy,
'you' of respect. Compare 'To Mrs. M. H.', and remember that Mrs.
Herbert's name was Magdalen.
ll. 27-8. _Comming and going, wee Perchance might kisse, but not
between those meales_: i.e. the kiss of salutation and parting. In a
sermon on the text 'Kisse the Son, lest he be angry', Donne enumerates
the uses of kissing sanctioned by the Bible, and this among them: 'Now
by this we are slid into our fourth and last branch of our first
part, The perswasion to come to this holy kisse, though defamed by
treachery, though depraved by licentiousnesse, since God invites us to
it, by so many good uses thereof in his Word. It is an imputation laid
upon _Nero_, that _Neque adveniens neque proficiscens_, That whether
comming or going he never kissed any: And Christ himself imputes it
to _Simon_, as a neglect of him, That when he _came into his house_ he
did not _kisse_ him. This then was in use', &c. _Sermons_ 80. 41. 407.
The kiss of salutation lasted in some countries till the later
eighteenth century, perhaps still lasts. See Rousseau's _Confessions_,
Bk. 9, and Byron's _Childe Harold_, III. lxxix.
But Erasmus, in 1499, speaks as though it were a specially English
custom: 'Est praeterea mos nunquam satis laudatus. Sive quo venis,
omnium osculis exciperis; sive discedis aliquo, osculis dimitteris;
redis, redduntur suavia; venitur ad te, propinantur suavia; disceditur
abs te, dividuntur basia; occurritur alicubi, basiatur affatim;
denique quocunque te moves, suaviorum plena sunt omnia.'