No More Learning

I think it is better than 'this day, Valentine', which Chambers adopts
from _1669_. The bride is addressed throughout the stanza, and it
would be a very abrupt change to refer 'thou' in l. 41 to Valentine.
I take 'this, thy Valentine' to mean 'this which is thy day, _par
excellence_', 'thy Saint Valentine's day', 'the day which saw you
paired'. But 'a Valentine' is a 'true-love': 'to be your
Valentine' (_Hamlet_, IV. v. 50), and the reference may be to
Frederick,--Frederick's Day is to become an era.

ll. 43-50. The punctuation of these lines requires attention. That of
the editions, which Chambers follows, arranges them thus:

Come forth, come forth, and as one glorious flame
Meeting Another growes the same,
So meet thy Fredericke, and so
To an unseparable union goe,
Since separation
Falls not on such things as are infinite,
Nor things which are but one, can disunite.
You'are twice inseparable, great, and one.

In this it will be seen that the clause 'Since separation . . .
can
disunite' is attached to the _previous_ verb. It gives the reason
why they should 'go to an unseparable union'. In that which I have
adopted, which is that of several good MSS. , the clause 'Since
separation . . . can disunite' goes with what _follows_, explains 'You
are twice inseparable, great, and one. ' This is obviously right. My
attention was first called to this emendation by the punctuation of
the Grolier Club editor, who changes the comma after 'goe' (l. 46) to
a semicolon.

l. 46. _To an unseparable union growe. _ I have adopted 'growe' from
the MSS. in place of 'goe' from the editions. The former are unanimous
with the strange exception of _Lec_.