Page 110, ll. 59 f. I could renew, &c. Compare Ovid, Amores, III. ii. 1-7.
Non ego nobilium sedeo studiosus equorum;
Cui tamen ipsa faves, vincat ut ille precor.
Ut loquerer tecum veni tecumque sederem,
Ne tibi non notus, quem facis, esset amor.
Tu cursum spectas, ego te; spectemus uterque
Quod iuvat, atque oculos pascat uterque suos.
O, cuicumque faves, felix agitator equorum!
Page 111. Elegie XVI.
A careful study of the textual notes to this poem will show that there is a considerable difference between the text of this poem as given for the first time in 1635, and that of the majority of the MSS. It is very difficult, however, to decide between them as the differences are not generally such as to suggest that one reading is necessarily right, the other wrong. The chief variants are these: 7 'parents' and 'fathers'. Here I fancy the 'parents' of the MSS. is right, and that 'fathers' in the editions and in a late MS. like O'F is due to the identification of Donne's mistress with his wife. Only the father of Anne More was alive at the time of their first acquaintance. It is not at all certain, however, that this poem is addressed to Anne More, and in any case Donne would probably have disguised the details. The change of 'parents' to 'fathers' is more likely than the opposite. In l. 12 'wayes' (edd.) and 'meanes' (MSS.) are practically indistinguishable; nor is there much to choose between the two versions of l. 18: 'My soule from other lands to thee shall soare' (edd.) and 'From other lands my soule towards thee shall soare' (MSS.). In each case the version of the editions is slightly the better. In l. 28, on the other hand, I have adopted 'mindes' without hesitation although here the MSS. vary. There is no question of changing the mind, but there is of changing the mind's habit, of adopting a boy's cast of thought and manner: as Rosalind says,