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l. 39. _The nakednesse and barenesse, &c. _ The reading 'barrennesse'
of all the editions and some MSS. is due probably to similarity of
pronunciation (rather than of spelling) and a superficial suggestion
of appropriateness to the context. A second glance shows that
'bareness' is the correct reading. The MSS. give frequent evidence of
having been written to dictation.

l. 46. The 'yet', which the later editions and Chambers drop, is quite
in Donne's style. It is heavily stressed and 'he was' is slurred, 'h'
was. '

PAGE =147=, l. 58. _The Infanta of London, Heire to an India.
_ It is
not necessary to suppose a reference to any person in particular.
The allusion is in the first place to the wealth of the city, and the
greed of patricians and courtiers to profit by that wealth. 'No one
can tell who, amid the host of greedy and expectant suitors, will
carry off whoever is at present the wealthiest minor (and probably the
king's ward) in London, i. e. the City. ' Compare the _Epithalamion made
at Lincolns Inn_:

Daughters of London, you which be
Our Golden Mines, and furnish'd Treasury,
You which are Angels, yet still bring with you
Thousands of Angels on your marriage days
. . . . . . . .
Make her for Love fit fuel,
As gay as Flora, and as rich as Inde.

Compare also: 'I possess as much in your wish, Sir, as if I were made
Lord of the Indies. ' Jonson, _Every Man out of his Humour_, II.