Donne
certainly
wrote 'disus'd' or
'disused'.
'disused'.
John Donne
To 'like and love' was an Elizabethan combination:
And yet we both make shew we like and love.
Farmer, _Chetham MS. _ (ed. Grosart), i. 90.
Yet every one her likte, and every one her lov'd.
Spenser, _Faerie Queene_, III. ix. 24.
Donne or his editor has made the line smoother.
l. 20. _To feed on that, which to disused tasts seems tough. _ I have
made the line an Alexandrine by printing 'disused', which occurs in
_A25_ and _B_, but it is 'disus'd' in the editions and most MSS. The
'weak' of _1650-69_ adjusts the metre, but for that very reason one
a little suspects an editor.
Donne certainly wrote 'disus'd' or
'disused'. Who changed it to 'weak' is not so certain. The meaning of
'disused' is, of course, 'unaccustomed. ' The O. E. D. quotes: 'I can
nat shote nowe but with great payne, I am so disused. ' Palsgr. (1530).
'Many disused persons can mutter out some honest requests in secret. '
Baxter, _Reformed Pastor_ (1656).
It seems to me probable that _P_ preserves an early form of these
lines:
who now is grown tough enough
To feed on that which to disused tastes seems rough.
The epithet 'tough' is appropriately enough applied to Love's
mature as opposed to his childish constitution, while rough has the
recognized sense of 'sharp, acid, or harsh to the taste'. The O. E. D.
