l. 8. _With cares rash sodaine stormes being o'rspread._ I have
let the _1633_ reading stand, though I feel sure that Donne is not
responsible for 'being o'rspread'. Printing from _D_, _H49_, _Lec_,
in which probably the word 'cruel' had been dropped, the editor or
printer supplied 'being' to adjust the metre. I have not corrected it
because I am not sure which is Donne's version. Clearly the line has
undergone some remodelling. My own view is that the earliest form is
suggested by _B_, _S_, _S96_,
With Cares rash sudden storms o'rpressed,
where 'o'erpress' means 'conquer, overwhelm'. Compare Shakespeare's
but in my sight
Deare heart forbear to glance thine eye aside.
What need'st thou wound with cunning when thy might
Is more than my o'erprest defence can bide.
_Sonnets_, 139. 8.
He bestrid an o'erpressed Roman.
_Coriolanus_, II. ii. 97.
To begin with, Donne described his grey hairs by a bold synecdoche,
leaving the greyness to be inferred: 'My head o'erwhelmed,
o'ermastered by Cares storms.' But 'o'erpressed' was harshly used and
was easily changed to 'o'erspread', which was made more appropriate by
substituting the effect, 'hoariness,' for the cause, 'Cares storms.'
This is what we find in _JC_ and such a good MS. as _W_:
With cares rash sudden horiness o'erspread.
In _B_ and _P_ 'cruel' has been inserted to complete the verse
when 'o'erpressed' was contracted to 'o'erprest' or changed to
'o'erspread'. In _1635-69_ the somewhat redundant 'rash' has been
altered to 'harsh'.
With cares harsh, sodaine horinesse o'rspread.
The image is more easily apprehended, and this may be Donne's final
version, but the original (if my view is correct) was bolder, and more
in the style of Shakespeare's
That time of yeeare thou maist in me behold,
When yellow leaues, or none, or few doe hange
Vpon those boughes which shake against the could,
Bare ruin'd quiers, where late the sweet birds sang.
_Sonnets_, 72. 1-4.
l. 16. _Should now love lesse, what hee did love to see._ Here again
there has been some recasting of the original by Donne or an editor.
Most MSS. read:
Should like and love less what hee did love to see.
To 'like and love' was an Elizabethan combination:
And yet we both make shew we like and love.
Farmer, _Chetham MS._ (ed. Grosart), i. 90.
Yet every one her likte, and every one her lov'd.
Spenser, _Faerie Queene_, III. ix. 24.
Donne or his editor has made the line smoother.
l. 20. _To feed on that, which to disused tasts seems tough._ I have
made the line an Alexandrine by printing 'disused', which occurs in
_A25_ and _B_, but it is 'disus'd' in the editions and most MSS. The
'weak' of _1650-69_ adjusts the metre, but for that very reason one
a little suspects an editor. Donne certainly wrote 'disus'd' or
'disused'. Who changed it to 'weak' is not so certain. The meaning of
'disused' is, of course, 'unaccustomed.' The O.E.D. quotes: 'I can
nat shote nowe but with great payne, I am so disused.' Palsgr. (1530).
'Many disused persons can mutter out some honest requests in secret.'
Baxter, _Reformed Pastor_ (1656).
It seems to me probable that _P_ preserves an early form of these
lines:
who now is grown tough enough
To feed on that which to disused tastes seems rough.
The epithet 'tough' is appropriately enough applied to Love's
mature as opposed to his childish constitution, while rough has the
recognized sense of 'sharp, acid, or harsh to the taste'. The O.E.D.
quotes: 'Harshe, rough, stipticke, and hard wine,' Stubbs (1583).
'The roughest berry on the rudest hedge', Shakespeare, _Antony and
Cleopatra_, I. iv. 64 (1608).
Possibly Donne changed 'tough' to 'strong' in order to avoid the
monotonous sound of 'tough enough ... rough', and this ultimately led
to the substitution of 'weak' for 'disused'. The present close of the
last line I find it difficult to away with. How can a thing seem tough
to the taste? Even meat does not _taste_ tough: and it is not of meat
that Donne is thinking but of wine. I should be disposed to return
to the reading of _P_, or, if we accept 'strong' and 'weak' as
improvements, at any rate to alter 'tough' to 'rough '.