the 'secrets of our Art' being all the signs by which they communicated to one another their mutual affection. But it is necessary to explain the presence of 'inwards' or 'inward' in both the versions.
Page 103, l. 79. The Summer how it ripened in the eare; This fine passage has been rather spoiled in all editions hitherto by printing in this line 'yeare' for 'eare', even in modernized texts. The MSS. and the sense both show that 'eare' is the right word, and indeed I have no doubt that 'year' in 1635 was simply due to a compositor's or copyist's pronunciation. It occurs again in the 1669 edition in the song Twicknam Garden (p. [28], l. 3):
And at mine eyes, and at mine years,
These forms in 'y' are common in Sylvester's Du Bartas, e.g. 'yerst'. The O.E.D. gives the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries as those in which 'yere' was a recognized pronunciation of 'ear', but it is found sporadically later and has misled editors. Thus in Sir George Etherege's letter to the Earl of Middleton from Ratisbon, printed in Dryden's Works (Scott and Saintsbury), xi, pp. 38-40, some lines run:
These formed the jewel erst did grace
The cap of the first Grave o' the race,
Preferred by Graffin Marian
To adorn the handle of her fan;
And, as by old record appears,
Worn since in Kunigunda's years;