_ Later editions and
Chambers
read
'strives', but 'ordinance' was used as a plural: 'The goodly ordinance
which were xii great Bombardes of brasse', and 'these six small iron
ordinance.
John Donne
Modern editors have all taken 'I' as the
pronoun.
ll. 49-50. _And do hear so
Like jealous husbands, what they would not know._
Compare:
Crede mihi; nulli sunt crimina grata marito;
Nec quemquam, quamvis audiat illa, iuvant.
Seu tepet, indicium securas perdis ad aures;
Sive amat, officio fit miser ille tuo.
Culpa nec ex facili, quamvis manifesta, probatur:
Iudicis illa sui tuta favore venit.
Viderit ipse licet, credet tamen ipse neganti;
Damnabitque oculos, et sibi verba dabit.
Adspiciet dominae lacrimas; plorabit et ipse:
Et dicet, poenas garrulus iste dabit.
Ovid, _Amores_, II. ii. 51-60.
PAGE =177=, l. 60. _Strive.
_ Later editions and
Chambers
read
'strives', but 'ordinance' was used as a plural: 'The goodly ordinance
which were xii great Bombardes of brasse', and 'these six small iron
ordinance.
' O.E.D. The word in this sense is now spelt 'ordnance'.
l. 66. _the'Bermuda_. It is probably unnecessary to change this to
'the'Bermudas.' The singular without the article is quite regular.
l. 67. _Darknesse, lights elder brother._ The 'elder' of the MSS. is
grammatically more correct than the 'eldest' of the editions. 'We must
return again to our stronghold, faith, and end with this, that this
beginning was, and before it, nothing.
