STEPS
TO THE
TEMPLE,
Sacred Poems.
With
The Delights of the Muses.
By RICHARD CRASHAW, _sometimes
of_ Pembroke Hall, _and
late fellow of_ S. Peters _Coll._
in Cambridge.
_The second Edition wherein are added divers
pieces not before extant._
LONDON,
Printed for _Humphrey Moseley_, and are to be
sold at his Shop at the Princes Armes
in St. _Pauls_ Church-yard.
1648. [12o]
The title-page to the 'Delights of the Muses' is exactly the same with
that of 1646, except the date '1648.' Collation: Engraved title-page;
title-page (printed); the Preface to the Reader and the Author's Motto,
pp. 6; 'Steps,' pp. 110; the Table, pp. 4; the 'Delights;' title-page;
the Table, pp. 3; Poems, pp. 71.
_3d edition, 1652._
CARMEN
DEO NOSTRO,
TE DECET HYMNVS
SACRED POEMS,
Collected,
Corrected,
Avgmented,
Most humbly Presented.
To
My Lady
The Covntesse of
DENBIGH
By
Her most deuoted Seruant.
R.C.
In heaty [_sic_] acknowledgment of his immortall
obligation to her Goodnes & Charity.
AT PARIS
By PETER TARGA, Printer to the Archbishope
ef [_sic_] Paris, in S. Victors streete at
the golden sunne.
M.DC.LII. [8vo]
Collation: Title-page; Verses by CAR, pp. 3; Verse-Letter to Countess of
Denbigh, pp. 3 [all unpaged]; the Poems, pp. 131. (See our Preface for
more on this and preceding and succeeding volumes, and for notice of a
separate edition of the Verse-Letter to the Countess of Denbigh.)
_4th edition, erroneously designated 2d edition_, 1670.
STEPS
TO THE
TEMPLE,
THE
DELIGHTS
Of The
Muses,
and
Carmen
Deo Nostro.
By _Ric. Crashaw_, sometimes Fellow of _Pembroke
Hall_, and late Fellow of _St. Peters
Colledge_ in _Cambridge_.
_The 2d. Edition._
In the Savoy,
Printed by T.N. for _Henry Herringham_ at the
_Blew Anchor_ in the _Lower Walk_ of the
_New Exchange_. 1670. [8vo]
Collation: Engraving of a 'Temple;' title-page; the Preface to the
Reader and the Author's Motto, pp. 8; the Table, pp. 6 [all unpaged];
'Steps,' pp. 77; 'Delights,' pp. 81-137; 'Carmen Deo Nostro, Te Decet
Hymnvs,' pp. 141-208. For later editions see our Preface, as before, and
for details on all, early and recent, and Manuscripts; and also our
Memorial-Introduction and Essay. The 'Preface' of 1646 was reprinted in
1648 without change, save a few slight orthographical differences, and
these: p. xlvi. line 3, 'their' for 'its dearest:' p. xlvii. line 1,
'subburd' for 'suburb:' and ibid, line 19, 'then' for 'than:' 1648 our
text. It follows this Note in its own place. G.
STEPS TO THE TEMPLE, &c.
THE PREFACE TO THE READER.
LEARNED READER,
The Author's friend will not usurpe much upon thy eye: This is onely for
those whom the name of our divine Poet hath not yet seized[11] into
admiration. I dare undertake that what JAMBLICUS[12] (_in vita
Pythagorae_) affirmeth of his Master, at his contemplations, these Poems
can, viz. They shall lift thee, Reader, some yards above the ground:
and, as in _Pythagoras_ Schoole, every temper was first tuned into a
height by severall proportions of Musick, and spiritualiz'd for one of
his weighty lectures; so maist thou take a poem hence, and tune thy
soule by it, into a heavenly pitch;[13] and thus refined and borne up
upon the wings of meditation, in these Poems thou maist talke freely of
God, and of that other state.
Here's _Herbert's_[14] second, but equall, who hath retriv'd Poetry of
late, and return'd it up to its primitive use; let it bound back to
heaven gates, whence it came. Thinke yee ST. AUGUSTINE would have
steyned his graver learning with a booke of Poetry, had he fancied its
dearest end to be the vanity of love-sonnets and epithalamiums? No, no,
he thought with this our Poet, that every foot in a high-borne verse,
might helpe to measure the soule into that better world. Divine Poetry,
I dare hold it in position, against SUAREZ on the subject, to be the
language of the angels; it is the quintessence of phantasie and
discourse center'd in Heaven; 'tis the very out-goings of the soule;
'tis what alone our Author is able to tell you, and that in his owne
verse.
It were prophane but to mention here in the Preface those under-headed
Poets, retainers to seven shares and a halfe;[15] madrigall fellowes,
whose onely businesse in verse, is to rime a poore six-penny soule, a
suburb-sinner[16] into Hell:--May such arrogant pretenders to Poetry
vanish, with their prodigious issue of tumorous[17] heats and flashes of
their adulterate braines, and for ever after, may this our Poet fill up
the better roome of man. Oh! when the generall arraignment of Poets
shall be, to give an accompt of their higher soules, with what a
triumphant brow shall our divine Poet sit above, and looke downe upon
poore HOMER, VIRGIL, HORACE, CLAUDIAN, &c.? who had amongst them the ill
lucke to talke out a great part of their gallant genius, upon bees,
dung, froggs, and gnats, &c., and not as himself here, upon Scriptures,
divine graces, martyrs and angels.
Reader, we stile his Sacred Poems, Steps to the Temple, and aptly, for
in the Temple of God, under His wing, he led his life, in St. Marie's
Church neere St. Peter's Colledge: there he lodged under TERTULLIAN'S
roofe of angels; there he made his nest more gladly than David's swallow
neere the house of God, where like a primitive saint, he offered more
prayers in the night than others usually offer in the day; there he
penned these Poems, STEPS for happy soules to climbe heaven by. And
those other of his pieces, intituled The Delights of the Muses, (though
of a more humane mixture) are as sweet as they are innocent.
The praises that follow, are but few of many that might be conferr'd on
him: he was excellent in five languages (besides his mother tongue),
vid. Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, the two last whereof he had
little helpe in, they were of his own acquisition.
Amongst his other accomplishments in accademick (as well pious as
harmlesse arts) he made his skill in Poetry, Musick, Drawing, Limming,
Graving (exercises of his curious invention and sudden fancy) to be but
his subservient recreations for vacant houres, not the grand businesse
of his soule.
To the former qualifications I might adde that which would crowne them
all, his rare moderation in diet (almost Lessian temperance[18]); he
never created a Muse out of distempers, nor (with our Canary
scribblers[19]) cast any strange mists of surfets before the
intellectuall beames of his mind or memory, the latter of which he was
so much a master of, that he had there under locke and key in
readinesse, the richest treasures of the best Greek and Latine poets,
some of which Authors hee had more at his command by heart, than others
that onely read their works, to retaine little, and understand lesse.
Enough Reader, I intend not a volume of praises larger than his booke,
nor need I longer transport thee to think over his vast perfections: I
will conclude all that I have impartially writ of this learned young
Gent. (now dead to us) as he himselfe doth, with the last line of his
poem upon Bishop Andrews' picture before his Sermons: _Verte paginas_,
'Look on his following leaves, and see him breath.'[20]
THE AUTHOR'S MOTTO.
Live Iesus, live, and let it bee
My life, to dye for love of Thee.
Sacred Poetry.
I.
STEPS TO THE TEMPLE
(1648),
AND
CARMEN DEO NOSTRO &c.
(1652).
SAINTE MARY MAGDALENE, OR THE WEEPER.[21]
Loe! where a wounded heart with bleeding eyes conspire.
Is she a flaming fountain, or a weeping fire?
* * * * *
THE WEEPER.[22]
I.
Hail, sister springs! 1
Parents of syluer-footed rills!
Euer-bubling things!
Thawing crystall! snowy hills
Still spending, neuer spent! I mean 5
Thy fair eyes, sweet Magdalene!
II.
Heauens thy fair eyes be;
Heauens of euer-falling starres.
'Tis seed-time still with thee;
And starres thou sow'st, whose haruest dares 10
Promise the Earth, to counter-shine
Whateuer makes heaun's forehead fine.
III.
But we' are deceiued all:
Starres indeed they are too true;
For they but seem to fall, 15
As heaun's other spangles doe:
It is not for our Earth and vs
To shine in things so pretious.
IV.
Vpwards thou dost weep:
Heaun's bosome drinks the gentle stream. 20
Where th' milky riuers creep,
Thine floates aboue, and is the cream.
Waters aboue th' heauns, what they be
We' are taught best by thy teares and thee.
V.
Euery morn from hence, 25
A brisk cherub something sippes,
Whose sacred influence
Addes sweetnes to his sweetest lippes;
Then to his musick; and his song
Tasts of this breakfast all day long. 30
VI.
When some new bright guest
Takes vp among the starres a room,
And Heaun will make a feast:
Angels with crystall violls come _phials_
And draw from these full eyes of thine, 35
Their Master's water, their own wine.
VII.
The deaw no more will weep
The primrose's pale cheek to deck:
The deaw no more will sleep
Nuzzel'd in the lilly's neck; 40
Much rather would it be thy tear,
And leaue them both to tremble here.
VIII.
Not the soft gold which
Steales from the amber-weeping tree,
Makes Sorrow halfe so rich 45
As the drops distil'd from thee.
Sorrowe's best iewels lye in these
Caskets, of which Heaven keeps the keyes.
IX.
When Sorrow would be seen
In her brightest majesty: 50
(For she is a Queen):
Then is she drest by none but thee.
Then, and only then, she weares
Her proudest pearles: I mean, thy teares.
X.
Not in the Euening's eyes, 55
When they red with weeping are
For the Sun that dyes;
Sitts Sorrow with a face so fair.
Nowhere but here did ever meet
Sweetnesse so sad, sadnesse so sweet. 60
XI.
Sadnesse all the while
Shee sits in such a throne as this,
Can doe nought but smile,
Nor beleeves she Sadnesse is:
Gladnesse it selfe would be more glad, 65
To bee made soe sweetly sad.
XII.
There's no need at all,
That the balsom-sweating bough
So coyly should let fall
His med'cinable teares; for now 70
Nature hath learnt to' extract a deaw
More soueraign and sweet, from you.
XIII.
Yet let the poore drops weep
(Weeping is the ease of Woe):
Softly let them creep, 75
Sad that they are vanquish't so.
They, though to others no releife,
Balsom may be for their own greife.
XIV.
Golden though he be,
Golden Tagus murmures though. 80
Were his way by thee,
Content and quiet he would goe;
Soe much more rich would he esteem
Thy syluer, then his golden stream.
XV.
Well does the May that lyes 85
Smiling in thy cheeks, confesse
The April in thine eyes;
Mutuall sweetnesse they expresse.
No April ere lent kinder showres,
Nor May return'd more faithfull flowres. 90
XVI.
O cheeks! Bedds of chast loues,
By your own showres seasonably dash't.
Eyes! Nests of milky doues,
In your own wells decently washt.
O wit of Loue! that thus could place 95
Fountain and garden in one face.
XVII.
O sweet contest! of woes
With loues; of teares with smiles disputing!
O fair and freindly foes,
Each other kissing and confuting! 100
While rain and sunshine, cheekes and eyes
Close in kind contrarietyes.
XVIII.
But can these fair flouds be
Freinds with the bosom-fires that fill thee!
Can so great flames agree 105
Aeternal teares should thus distill thee!
O flouds! O fires! O suns! O showres!
Mixt and made freinds by Loue's sweet powres.
XIX.
'Twas his well-pointed dart
That digg'd these wells, and drest this wine; 110
And taught the wounded heart
The way into these weeping eyn.
Vain loues auant! bold hands forbear!
The Lamb hath dipp't His white foot here.
XX.
And now where'ere He strayes, 115
Among the Galilean mountaines,
Or more vnwellcome wayes;
He's follow'd by two faithfull fountaines;
Two walking baths, two weeping motions,
Portable, and compendious oceans. 120
XXI.
O thou, thy Lord's fair store!
In thy so rich and rare expenses,
Euen when He show'd most poor
He might prouoke the wealth of princes.
What prince's wanton'st pride e'er could 125
Wash with syluer, wipe with gold?
XXII.
Who is that King, but He
Who calls 't His crown, to be call'd thine,
That thus can boast to be
Waited on by a wandring mine, 130
A voluntary mint, that strowes
Warm, syluer showres wher're He goes?
XXIII.
O pretious prodigall!
Fair spend-thrift of thy-self! thy measure
(Mercilesse loue!) is all. 135
Euen to the last pearle in thy threasure: _thesaurus_, Latin.
All places, times, and obiects be
Thy teares' sweet opportunity.
XXIV.
Does the day-starre rise?
Still thy teares doe fall and fall. 140
Does Day close his eyes?
Still the fountain weeps for all.
Let Night or Day doe what they will,
Thou hast thy task: thou weepest still.
XXV.
Does thy song lull the air? 145
Thy falling teares keep faithfull time.
Does thy sweet-breath'd praire
Vp in clouds of incense climb?
Still at each sigh, that is, each stop,
A bead, that is, a tear, does drop. 150
XXVI.
At these thy weeping gates
(Watching their watry motion),
Each winged moment waits:
Takes his tear, and gets him gone.
By thine ey's tinct enobled thus, 155
Time layes him vp; he's pretious.
XXVII.
Time, as by thee He passes,
Makes thy ever-watry eyes
His hower-glasses.
By them His steps He rectifies. 160
The sands He us'd, no longer please,
For His owne sands Hee'l use thy seas.
XXVIII.
Not, 'so long she liued,'
Shall thy tomb report of thee;
But, 'so long she grieued:' 165
Thus must we date thy memory.
Others by moments, months, and yeares
Measure their ages; thou, by teares.
XXIX.
So doe perfumes expire,
So sigh tormented sweets, opprest 170
With proud vnpittying fire.
Such teares the suffring rose, that's vext
With vngentle flames, does shed,
Sweating in a too warm bed.
XXX.
Say, ye bright brothers, 175
The fugitiue sons of those fair eyes,
Your fruitfull mothers!
What make you here? what hopes can 'tice
You to be born? what cause can borrow
You from those nests of noble sorrow? 180
XXXI.
Whither away so fast?
For sure the sluttish earth
Your sweetnes cannot tast,
Nor does the dust deserve your birth.
Sweet, whither hast you then? O say 185
Why you trip so fast away?
XXXII.
We goe not to seek
The darlings of Aurora's bed,
The rose's modest cheek,
Nor the violet's humble head. 190
Though the feild's eyes too Weepers be,
Because they want such teares as we.
XXXIII.
Much lesse mean we to trace
The fortune of inferior gemmes,
Preferr'd to some proud face, 195
Or pertch't vpon fear'd diadems:
Crown'd heads are toyes. We goe to meet
A worthy object, our Lord's feet.
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
With some shortcomings--superficial rather than substantive--'The
Weeper' is a lovely poem, and well deserves its place of honour at the
commencement of the 'Steps to the Temple,' as in editions of 1646, 1648,
and 1670. Accordingly we have spent the utmost pains on our text of it,
taking for basis that of 1652. The various readings of the different
editions and of the SANCROFT MS. are given below for the capable student
of the ultimate perfected form. I have not hesitated to correct several
misprints of the text of 1652 from the earlier editions.
The present poem appears very imperfectly in the first edition (1646),
consisting there of only twenty-three stanzas instead of thirty-three
(and so too in 1670 edition). The stanzas that are not given therein are
xvi. to xxix. (on the last see onward). But on the other hand, exclusive
of interesting variations, the text of 1646 supplies two entire stanzas
(xi. and xxvii.) dropped out in the editions of 1648 and 1652, though
both are in 1670 edition and in the SANCROFT MS. Moreover I accept the
succession of the stanzas in 1646, so far as it goes, confirmed as it is
by the SANCROFT MS. A third stanza in 1652 edition (st. xi. there) as
also in 1648 edition, I omit, as it belongs self-revealingly to 'The
Teare,' and interrupts the metaphor in 'The Weeper.' Another stanza
(xxix.) might seem to demand excision also, as it is in part repeated in
'The Teare;' but the new lines are dainty and would be a loss to 'The
Weeper.' Our text therefore is that of 1652, as before, with
restorations from 1646.
The form of the stanza in the editions of 1646, 1648 and 1670 is thus:
_______________________________
_______________________________
__________________________
_______________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
In 1652 from stanza xv. (there) to end,
_______________________________
_______________________________
_______________________________
_______________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
but I have made all uniform, and agreeably to above of 1652.
I would now submit variations, illustrations and corrections, under the
successive stanzas and lines.
Couplet on the engraving of 'The Weeper.' In 1652 'Sainte' is misprinted
'Sanite,' one of a number that remind us that the volume was printed in
Paris, not London. In all the other editions the heading 'Sainte Mary
Magdalene' is omitted.
St. i. line 2. 1646, 1648 and 1670 editions read 'silver-forded.' Were
it only for the reading of the text of 1652 'silver-footed,' I should
have been thankful for it; and I accept it the more readily in that the
SANCROFT MS. from Crashaw's own copy, also reads 'silver-footed.' The
Homeric compound epithet occurs in HERRICK contemporarily in his
_Hesperides_,
'I send, I send here my supremest kiss
To thee, my _silver-footed_ Thamasis'
[that is, the river Thames]. WILLIAM BROWNE earlier, has 'faire
_silver-footed_ Thetis' (Works by Hazlitt, i. p. 188). Cf. also the
first line of the Elegy on Dr. Porter in our 'Airelles'--printed for the
first time by us: 'Stay silver-footed Came.'
With reference to the long-accepted reading 'silver-_forded_,' the
epithet is loosely used not for in the state of being forded, but for in
a state to be forded, or fordable, and hence shallow. The thought is not
quite the same as that intended to be conveyed by such a phrase as
'silver stream of Thames,' but pictures the bright, pellucid, silvery
whiteness of a clear mountain rill. As silver-shallow--a meaning which,
as has been said, cannot be fairly obtained from it--can it alone be
taken as a double epithet. In any other sense the hyphen is only an
attempt to connect two qualities which refuse to be connected. All
difficulty and obscurity are removed by 'silver-footed.'
St. iii. line 1. The. 'we'' may be = wee, as printed in 1646, but in
1648 it is 'we are,' and in 1670 'we're,' and in the last, line 2,
'they're.' The SANCROFT MS. in line 2, reads 'they are indeed' for
'indeed they are.'
St. iv. line 4, 1646 and 1670 have 'crawles' and 'crawls' respectively,
for 'floates,' as in 1648 and our text. The SANCROFT MS. also reads
'crawles.' In line 3, 1646 and 1670 'meet' is inadvertently substituted
for 'creep.'
Lines 5 and 6, 1646 and 1670 read
'Heaven, of such faire floods as this,
Heaven the christall ocean is.'
So too the SANCROFT MS., save that for 'this' it has 'these.'
St. v. line 2. 'Brisk' is = active, nimble. So--and something
more--SHAKESPEARE: 'he made me mad, to see him shine so _brisk_' (1
Henry IV. 3).
Line 3. 1646, 1670 and SANCROFT MS. read 'soft' for 'sacred' of 1652 and
1648.
Line 6, 'Breakfast.' See our Essay on this and similar homely words,
with parallels. 1648 reads 'his' for '_this_ breakfast.'
St. vi. line 4, 'violls' = 'phials' or small bottles. The reading in
1646 and 1670 is 'Angels with their _bottles_ come.' So also in the
SANCROFT MS.
St. vii. line 4. 'Nuzzeld' = nestled or nourished. In quaint old DR.
WORSHIP'S Sermons, we have 'dew _cruzzle_ on his cheek' (p. 91).
Lines 1 and 3, 'deaw' = 'dew.' This was the contemporary spelling, as it
was long before in SIR JOHN DAVIES, the FLETCHERS and others in our
Fuller Worthies' Library, _s.v._
Lines 5 and 6. 1646, 1670 and SANCROFT MS. read
'Much rather would it tremble heere
And leave them both to bee thy teare.'
1648 is as our text (1652).
St. ix. A hasty reader may judge this stanza to have been displaced by
the xith, but a closer examination reveals a new vein (so-to-say) of the
thought. It is characteristic of Crashaw to give a first-sketch, and
afterwards fill in other details to complete the scene or portraiture.
St. xi. Restored from 1646.
St. xii. line 1. 1646, 1648 and 1670 read 'There is.'
Line 4, '_med'cinable_ teares.' So SHAKESPEARE (nearly): 'their
_medicinal_ gum' (Othello, v. 2).
St. xiii. line 2. 1646 and 1670 unhappily misprint 'case;' and TURNBULL
passed the deplorable blunder and perpetuated it.
Line 5. Our text (1652) misprints 'draw' for 'deaw' = dew, as before.
Line 6. 1646 and 1670 read 'May balsame.'
St. xiv. line 3. 1646 and 1670 read
'Might he flow from thee.'
TURNBULL misses the rhythmical play in the first and second 'though,'
and punctuates the second so as to read with next line. I make a
full-stop as in the SANCROFT MS.
Line 4, ib. read
'Content and quiet would he goe.'
So the SANCROFT MS.
Line 5, ib. read
'Richer far does he esteeme.'
So the SANCROFT MS.
St. xv. lines 5 and 6, ib. read
'No April e're lent softer showres,
Nor May returned fairer flowers.'
'Faithful' looks deeper: but the SANCROFT MS. agrees with '46 and '70.
St. xvii. line 2, in 1648 misreads
'With loves and tears, and smils disputing.'
TURNBULL, without the slightest authority, seeing not even in 1670 are
the readings found, has thus printed lines 2 and 4, 'With loves, of
tears _with smiles disporting_' ... 'Each other kissing and
_comforting_'!!
St. xviii. line 2 in 1648 misreads
'Friends with the balsome fires that fill thee.'
The 'balsome' is an evident misprint, but 'thee' is preferable to 'fill
you' of our text (1652), and hence I have adopted it.
Line 3 in 1648 reads
'Cause great flames agree.'
St. xix. line 3, 1648, reads 'that' for 'the.'
Line 4, ib. 'those' for 'these.'
Line 6. cf. Revelations xiv. 5, 'These are they which follow the Lamb
whithersoever He goeth.'
St. xxi. line 6. 'wipe with gold,' refers to Mary Magdalene's golden
tresses, as also in st. xxii. 'a voluntary mint.'
Line 4. 'prouoke' = challenge.
St. xxii. line 2. Curiously enough, 1648 edition leaves a blank where we
read 'calls 't' as in our text (1652). TURNBULL prints 'call'st,' but
that makes nonsense. It is calls't as = calls it. So too the SANCROFT
MS. Probably the copy for 1648 was illegible.
St. xxiv. line 1. 1646 and 1670 read
'Does the Night arise?'
Line 2. Our text (1652) misprints 'starres' for 'teares' of 1646, 1648
and 1670.
Line 3. 1646 and 1670 read
'Does Night loose her eyes?'
The SANCROFT MS. reads line 139 'Does the Night arise?' and line 141,
'Does Niget loose her eyes?'
St. xxv. line 2. 1646 and 1670 read
'Thy teares' just cadence still keeps time.'
So the SANCROFT MS.
Line 3. Our text (1652) misprints 'paire' for 'praire.' 'Sweet-breath'd'
should probably be pronounced as the adjectival of the substantive, not
as the participle of the verb.
Line 6. 1646, 1648 and 1670 read 'doth' for 'does.'
St. xxvi. lines 1 and 2. 1646 and 1670 read
'Thus dost thou melt the yeare
Into a weeping motion.
Each minute waiteth heere.'
So the SANCROFT MS.
St. xxvii. Restored from 1646 edition. The SANCROFT MS. in line 168
miswrites 'teares.'
St. xxviii. line 5. reads in 1646 and 1670
'Others by dayes, by monthes, by yeares.'
So also the SANCROFT MS., wherein this st. follows our st. xv.
St. xxix. line 3. Our text (1652) misprints 'fires' for 'fire' of 1648.
St. xxx. line 1. Our text (1652) misprints 'Say the bright brothers.'
1646 and 1670 read 'Say watry Brothers.' So SANCROFT MS. 1648 gives
'ye,' which I have adopted. The misprint of 'the' in 1652 originated
doubtless in the printer's reading 'ye,' the usual mode of writing
'the.'
Line 2. 1646 and 1670 read
'Yee simpering ...'
So the SANCROFT MS.
Line 3, ib. 'fertile' for 'fruitfull.'
Line 4, ib. 'What hath our world that can entice.' So the SANCROFT MS.
Lines 5 and 6, ib.
'what is't can borrow
You from her eyes, swolne wombes of sorrow.'
So the SANCROFT MS.
St. xxxi. line 2. 1646 and 1670 read
'O whither? for the _sluttish_ Earth:'
and I accept 'sluttish' for 'sordid,' which is also confirmed by
SANCROFT MS.
Line 4, ib. 'your' for 'their;' and as this is also the reading of 1648
and SANCROFT MS., I have accepted it.
Line 5. 1646 and 1670 omit 'Sweet.'
Line 6, ib. read 'yee' for 'you.'
St. xxxii. and xxxiii. In 1646 and 1670 these two stanzas are thrown
into one, viz. 23 (there), which consists of the first four lines of
xxxii. and the two closing lines of xxxiii. as follows,