PAGE =113=. ELEGIE XVII.

l. 12. _wide and farr._ The MSS. here correct an obvious error of the

editions.

PAGE =114=, l. 24. This line is found only in _A10_, which omits the

next eleven lines. It may belong to a shorter version of the poem, but

it fits quite well into the context.

PAGE =115=, l. 58. _daring eyes._ The epithet looks as though it had

been repeated from the line above, and perhaps 'darling' or 'darting'

may have been the original reading. However, both the MSS. agree with

the editions, and the word is probably used in two distinct senses,

'bold, adventurous' with 'armes' and 'dazzling' with 'eyes'. Compare:

O now no more

Shall his perfections, like the sunbeams, dare

The purblind world; in heaven those glories are.

Campion, _Elegie upon the Untimely Death of Prince Henry_.

Let his Grace go forward

And dare us with his cap like larks.

Shakespeare, _Henry VIII_, III. ii. 282.

This refers to the custom of 'daring' or dazzling larks with a mirror.

The Poems of John Donne, Volume 2 (of 2) Edited from the Old Editions and Numerous Manuscripts · 第 178 / 290 题