l. 5. _forc'd unto none_ is a strange expression, and the 'forbid
to none' of _B_ is an attempt to emend it; but 'forc'd unto none'
probably means 'not bound by compulsion to be faithful to any'. In
woman's love and in the arts you may always expect to be ousted from
a favoured position by a successful rival. No one has in these a
monopoly:
Is sibi responsum hoc habeat, in medio omnibus
Palmam esse positam, qui artem tractant musicam.
Ter. _Phorm._ Prol. 16-17.
l. 8. _these meanes, as I,_ It is difficult to say whether the 'these'
of the editions and of _D_, _H49_, _Lec_ or the 'those' of the rest of
the MSS. is preferable. The construction with either in the sense of
'the same as', 'such as', was not uncommon:
Under these hard conditions as this time
Is like to lay upon us.
Shakespeare, _Jul. Caes._ I. ii. 174.
l. 17. _Who hath a plow-land, &c._ This has nothing to do, as Grosart
seems to think, with the name for a certain measurement of land in the
north of England corresponding to a hide in the south. A 'plow-land'
here is an arable or cultivated field. Possibly the 'a' has crept in
and one should read simply 'plow-land', or, like _P_, 'plow-lands.'
Otherwise 'Who hath' is to be slurred in reading the line. The meaning
of the passage seems to be that though a man puts all his own seed
into his land, he is quite willing to reap the corn which has sprung
from others' seed, brought thither, it may be, by wind or birds.
l. 30. _To runne all countries, a wild roguery._ The Oxford English
Dictionary quotes this line, giving to 'roguery' the meaning of 'a
knavish, rascally act'. But Grosart is certainly right in explaining
it as 'vagrancy'. In love, Donne does not wish to be a captive bound
to one, but he does not wish on the other hand to be a vagrant with
no settled abode. The O.E.D. dates the poem c. 1620, which is much too
late. Donne was not writing in this manner after he took orders. It
cannot be later than 1601, and is probably earlier.
l. 32. _more putrifi'd_, or, as in the MSS., 'worse putrifi'd.'
The latter is probably correct, but the difference is trifling. By
'putrifi'd' Donne means 'made salt' and so less fit for drinking. The
'purifi'd' of some editions points to a misunderstanding of Donne's
meaning; for saltness and putrefaction were not identical: 'For Salt
as incorruptible was the Symbol of friendship, and before the other
service was offered unto their guests.' Browne, _Vulgar Errors_, v.
22.