and in my heart
Lie there what hidden woman's fear there will,
We'll have a swashing and a martial outside,
As many other mannish cowards have
That do outface it with their semblances.
As You Like It, I. iii. 114-18.
In l. 35 the reading 'Lives fuellers', i.e. 'Life's fuellers', which is found in such early and good MSS. as D, H49, Lec and W, is very remarkable. If I were convinced that it is correct I should regard it as decisive and prefer the MS. readings throughout. But 'Loves fuellers', though also a strange phrase, seems more easy of interpretation, and applicable.
In l. 37 there can, I think, be no doubt that the original reading is preserved by A18, N, S, TCD, and W.
Will quickly knowe thee, and knowe thee, and, alas!
The sudden, brutal change in the sense of the word 'knowe' is quite in Donne's manner. The reasons for omitting or softening it are obvious, and may excuse my not restoring it. The whole of these central lines reveal that strange bad taste, some radical want of delicacy, which mars not only Donne's poems and lighter prose but even at times the sermons. In l. 49 the reading of the MSS. A18, N, TC; D, H49, Lec, and W is also probably original: