And The Progresse of the Soule, p. [295], l. 17:
thy Western land of Myne.
And for the two Indias: 'As hee that hath a plentifull fortune in Europe, cares not much though there be no land of perfumes in the East, nor of gold, in the West-Indies.' Sermons 50. 15. 123. And 'Sir. Your way into Spain was eastward, and that is the way to the land of perfumes and spices; their way hither is westward, and that is the way to the land of gold and of mines,' &c. To Sir Robert Ker. Gosse's Life, &c., ii. 191.
l. 24. All wealth alchimie: i.e. imposture or 'glittering dross' (O.E.D.). 'Though the show of it were glorious, the substance of it was dross, and nothing but alchymy and cozenage.' Harrington, Orlando Furioso (1591). See also poem cited II. p. 11.
Page 12. The Indifferent.
l. 7. dry corke. Cork was a favourite metaphor for what was dry and withered. To our taste it is hardly congruous with love or tragic poetry, perhaps because of its associations. 'Bind fast his corky arms,' says Cornwall, speaking of Gloucester (King Lear, III. vii. 31), but Shakespeare seems to have taken the epithet from Harsnett's Declaration of Egregious Popishe Impostures, &c. (1603): 'It would pose all the cunning exorcists ... to teach an old corkie woman to writhe, tumble, curvet,' c. 5, p. 23.
Page 13. Loves Usury.
l. 5. My body raigne. Grosart and Chambers substitute 'range', from 1635-69. Perhaps they are right; but I feel doubtful. All the best MSS. read 'raigne.' Donne contrasts the reign of love and the reign of lust on the body, and frankly declares for the latter. A lover might range, 'I can love both fair and brown,' but no lover could
mistake by the way
The maid, and tell the lady of that delay.