Thrice-honored Fleas! I greet you all as Dons.
In Phoebus' archives registered are ye,
And this your patent of nobility.
It will be noticed that there are two versions of Donne's poem.
Page 41. The Curse.
l. 3. His only, and only his purse. This, the reading of all the editions except the last, and of the MSS., is obviously right. What is to dispose 'some dull heart to love' is his only purse and his alone, no one's but his purse. Chambers adopts the 1669 conjecture, 'Him only for his purse,' but in that case there is no subject to 'may dispose', or if 'some dull heart' be subject then 'itself' must be supplied—a harsh construction. 'Dispose' is not used intransitively in this sense.
l. 27. Mynes. I have adopted the plural from the MSS. It brings it into line with the other objects mentioned.
Page 43. The Message.
l. 11. But if it be taught by thine. It seems incredible that Donne should have written 'which if it' &c. immediately after the 'which' of the preceding line. I had thought that the 1633 printer had accidentally repeated from the line above, but the evidence of the MSS. points to the mistake (if it is a mistake) being older than that. 'Which' was in the MS. used by the printer. If 'But' is not Donne's own reading or emendation it ought to be, and I am loath to injure a charming poem by pedantic adherence to authority in so small a point. De minimis non curat lex; but art cares very much indeed. JC and P read 'Yet since it hath learn'd by thine'.