PAGE =108=. ELEGIE XV.

l. 12. Following _RP31_ and also Jonson's _Underwoods_ I have taken

'at once' as going with 'Both hot and cold', not with 'make life, and

death' as in _1633-69_. This is one of the poems which _1633_ derived

from some other source than _D_, _H49_, _Lec_.

ll. 16-18 (_all sweeter ... the rest_) Chambers has overlooked

altogether the _1633_ reading 'sweeter'. He prints 'sweeten'd'

from _1635-69_. It is clear from the MSS. that this is an editor's

amendment due to Donne's 'all sweeter' suggesting, perhaps

intentionally, 'all the sweeter'. By dropping the bracket Chambers

has left at least ambiguous the construction of 17-18: _And the divine

impression of stolne kisses That sealed the rest._ Does this, as in

_1633_, belong to the parenthesis, or is 'the divine impression' to be

taken with 'so many accents sweet, so many sighes' and 'so many oathes

and teares' as part subject to 'should now prove empty blisses'. I

prefer the _1633_ arrangement, which has the support of the MSS.,

though the punctuation of these is apt to be careless. The accents,

sighs, oaths, and tears were all made sweeter by having been stolen

with fear and trembling. This is how the Grolier Club editor takes it;

Grosart and Chambers prefer to follow _1635-69_.

PAGE 109, l. 34. I do not know whence Chambers derived his reading

'drift' for 'trust'--perhaps from an imperfect copy of _1633_. He

attributes it to all the editions prior to 1669. This is an oversight.

PAGE =110=, ll. 59 f. _I could renew, &c._ Compare Ovid, _Amores_, III.

ii. 1-7.

Non ego nobilium sedeo studiosus equorum;

Cui tamen ipsa faves, vincat ut ille precor.

Ut loquerer tecum veni tecumque sederem,

Ne tibi non notus, quem facis, esset amor.

Tu cursum spectas, ego te; spectemus uterque

Quod iuvat, atque oculos pascat uterque suos.

O, cuicumque faves, felix agitator equorum!

The Poems of John Donne, Volume 2 (of 2) Edited from the Old Editions and Numerous Manuscripts · 第 176 / 290 题