PAGE =412=. AN ELEGIE.

Grosart prints this very incorrectly. He does not even reproduce

correctly the MS. _S_, which he professes to follow. Chambers follows

Grosart, adopting some of the variants of the Haslewood-Kingsborough

MS. reported by Grosart. They both have the strange reading 'cut

in bands' in l. 11, which as a fact is not even in _S_, from which

Grosart professes to derive it. The reading of all the MSS., 'but in

his handes,' makes quite good sense. The Scot wants matter, except

in his hands, i.e. dirt, which is 'matter out of place'. The reading,

'writ in his hands', which Chambers reports after Grosart, is probably

a mistake of the latter's. Indeed his own note suggests that the

reading of _H-K_ is 'but in's hands'.

The Poems of John Donne, Volume 2 (of 2) Edited from the Old Editions and Numerous Manuscripts · 第 265 / 290 题