PAGE =101=, l. 37. _And mad'st us sigh and glow_: 'sigh and blow' has
been the somewhat inelegant reading of all editions hitherto.
l. 42. _And over all thy husbands towring eyes._ The epithet 'towring'
is strange and the MSS. show some vacillation. Most of them read
'towred', probably the past participle of the same verb, though
Grosart alters to 'two red'--not a very poetical description. _RP31_
here diverges from _H40_ and reads 'loured', perhaps for 'lurid', but
both these MSS. alter the order of the words and attach the epithet
to 'husbands', which is manifestly wrong, and the Grolier Club edition
prints 'lowering' without comment, regarding, I suppose, 't' as a
mistake for 'l'.
The 'towring' of _1669_ and _TCD_ is probably correct, being a
bold metaphor from hawking, and having the force practically of
'threatening'. The hawk towers threateningly above its prey before it
'sousing kills with a grace'. If 'towring' is not right, 'lowring' is
the most probable emendation.
PAGE =102=, l. 43. _That flam'd with oylie sweat of jealousie._ This
is the reading of all the MSS., and as on the whole their text is
superior I have followed it. If 'oylie' is, as I think, the right
epithet, it means 'moist', as in 'an oily palm', with perhaps a
reference to the inflammability of oil. If 'ouglie '(i.e. ugly) be
preferred it is a forcible transferred epithet.
l. 49. _most respects?_ This is the reading of all the MSS., and
'best' in _1669_ is probably an emendation. The use of 'most' as an
adjective, superlative of 'great', is not uncommon:
God's wrong is most of all.
Shakespeare, _Rich. III_, IV. iv. 377.
Though in this place most master wear no breeches.
Ibid., _2 Hen. VI_, I. iii. 144.
l. 54. I can make no exact sense of this line either as it stands in
_1669_ or in the MSS. One is tempted to combine the versions and read:
Yea thy pale colours, and thy panting heart,
the 'secrets of our Art' being all the signs by which they
communicated to one another their mutual affection. But it is
necessary to explain the presence of 'inwards' or 'inward' in both the
versions.
PAGE =103=, l. 79. _The Summer how it ripened in the eare_; This fine
passage has been rather spoiled in all editions hitherto by printing
in this line 'yeare' for 'eare', even in modernized texts. The MSS.
and the sense both show that 'eare' is the right word, and indeed I
have no doubt that 'year' in _1635_ was simply due to a compositor's
or copyist's pronunciation. It occurs again in the 1669 edition in the
song _Twicknam Garden_ (p. 28, l. 3):
And at mine eyes, and at mine years,
These forms in 'y' are common in Sylvester's _Du Bartas_, e.g.
'yerst'. The O.E.D. gives the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries as
those in which 'yere' was a recognized pronunciation of 'ear', but it
is found sporadically later and has misled editors. Thus in Sir George
Etherege's letter to the Earl of Middleton from Ratisbon, printed in
Dryden's _Works_ (Scott and Saintsbury), xi, pp. 38-40, some lines
run:
These formed the jewel erst did grace
The cap of the first Grave o' the race,
Preferred by Graffin Marian
To adorn the handle of her fan;
And, as by old record appears,
Worn since in Kunigunda's years;
Now sparkling in the Froein's hair,
No rocket breaking in the air
Can with her starry head compare.
In a modernized text, as this is, surely 'Kunigunda's years' should be
'Kunigunda's ears'.
ll. 93-4. _That I may grow enamoured on your mind,
When my own thoughts I there reflected find._
'I there neglected find' has been the reading of all editions
hitherto--a strange reason for being enamoured.
PAGE =104=, l. 96. _My deeds shall still be what my words are now_:
'words' suits the context better than either the 'deeds' of _1635-69_
or 'thoughts' of _A25_.