My constant falling tears the paper stain,
And my weak hand, etc.—Bowles.
[20] "The parenthesis is an interpolation," says a note transcribed by Richardson from Pope's manuscript, and the remark is equally applicable to the next line.
[21] In the first edition,
No gift on thee thy Sappho could confer.
The original couplet in the MS. was
No pledge you left me, faithless and unkind!
Nothing with me but wrongs was left behind.
"Jejune, flat, and ill expressed," is written against the last line in the manuscript, and Pope profited by the criticism.
[22] This image is not in the original, but it is very pleasingly introduced.—Bowles.
[23] The ten next verses are much superior to the original.—Warton.
[24] From Dryden's Ovid, Epist. vii.: