No More Learning

So shall I clothe me in a forced content,
And shut myself up in some other course,
To fortune's alms.
Shakespeare, _Othello_, III. iv. 120-2.

In _W_ 'All haile sweet Poet' is followed at once by these lines,
presumably written by Thomas Woodward and possibly in reply to the
above. They are found standing by themselves in _B_, _O'F_, _P_,
_S96_. In these they are apparently ascribed to Donne. I print from
_W_:

TO M^r J. D.

Thou sendst me prose and rimes, I send for those
Lynes, which, being neither, seem or verse or prose.
They'are lame and harsh, and have no heat at all
But what thy Liberall beams on them let fall.
The nimble fyre which in thy braynes doth dwell
Is it the fyre of heaven or that of hell?
It doth beget and comfort like Heavens eye,
And like hells fyre it burnes eternally.
And those whom in thy fury and judgment
Thy verse shall skourge like hell it will torment.
Have mercy on mee and my sinfull Muse
Which rub'd and tickled with thine could not chuse
But spend some of her pith, and yeild to bee
One in that chaste and mistique Tribadree.
Bassaes adultery no fruit did Leave,
Nor theirs, which their swollen thighs did nimbly weave,
And with new armes and mouths embrace and kiss,
Though they had issue was not like to this.
Thy muse, Oh strange and holy Lecheree
Being a mayde still, gott this song on mee.

l. 25. _Now if this song, &c. _ By interchanging the stops at 'evill'
and at 'passe' the old editions have obscured these lines. Mr.
Chambers, accepting the full stop at 'evill', prints:--

If thou forget the rhyme as thou dost pass,
Then write;

The reason for writing is not clear. 'If thou forget,' &c. explains
''Twill be good prose'. 'Read this without attending to the rhymes
and you will find it good prose. ' If we drop the epithet 'good', this
criticism will apply to a considerable portion of metaphysical poetry.

PAGE =205=, l. 30. _thy zanee_, i. e.