The epithet 'tough' is appropriately enough applied to Love's mature as opposed to his childish constitution, while rough has the recognized sense of 'sharp, acid, or harsh to the taste'. The O.E.D. quotes: 'Harshe, rough, stipticke, and hard wine,' Stubbs (1583). 'The roughest berry on the rudest hedge', Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, I. iv. 64 (1608).
Possibly Donne changed 'tough' to 'strong' in order to avoid the monotonous sound of 'tough enough ... rough', and this ultimately led to the substitution of 'weak' for 'disused'. The present close of the last line I find it difficult to away with. How can a thing seem tough to the taste? Even meat does not taste tough: and it is not of meat that Donne is thinking but of wine. I should be disposed to return to the reading of P, or, if we accept 'strong' and 'weak' as improvements, at any rate to alter 'tough' to 'rough '.
Page 87. Elegie VI.
l. 6. Their Princes stiles, with many Realmes fulfill. This is the reading of all the best MSS. The 'which' for 'with' of the editions is due to an easy confusion of two contractions invariably used in the MSS. Grosart and Chambers accept 'with' from S and A25, but further alter 'styles' to 'style', following these generally inferior MSS. The plural is correct. Donne refers to more than one prince and style. The stock instance is
the poor king Reignier, whose large style
Agrees not with the leanness of his purse.
2 Henry VI, I. i. 111-12.
But the English monarchs themselves bore in their 'style' the kingdom of France, and for some years (1558-1566) Mary, Queen of Scots, bore in her 'style' the arms of England and Ireland.
Page 88, ll. 21-34. These lines evidently suggested Carew's poem, To my Mistress sitting by a River's Side, An Eddy:
Mark how yon eddy steals away