When London in thy cheekes can shew them heere
Roses and Lillies growing all the yeere.
Drayton, Heroical Epistles (1597), Edward IV to Jane Shore.
l. 176. Baloune. A game played with a large wind-ball or football struck to and fro with the arm or foot.
l. 179. and I, (God pardon mee.) This, the reading of the 1633 edition, is obviously right. Mr. Chambers, misled by the dropping of the full stop after 'me' in the editions from 1639 onwards, has adopted a reading of his own:
and aye—God pardon me—
As fresh and sweet their apparels be, as be
The fields they sold to buy them.
But what, in this case, does Donne ask God's pardon for? It is not his fault that their apparels are fresh or costly. 'God pardon them!' would be the appropriate exclamation. What Donne asks God's pardon for is, that he too should be found in the 'Presence' again, after what he has already seen of Court life and 'the wretchedness of suitors': as though Dante, who had seen Hell and escaped, should wilfully return thither.
l. 189. Cutchannel: i.e. Cochineal. The ladies' painted faces suggest the comparison. In or shortly before 1603 an English ship, the Margaret and John, made a piratical attack on the Venetian ship, La Babiana. An indemnity was paid, and among the stolen articles are mentioned 54 weights of cochineal, valued at £50-7. Our school Histories tell us of Turkish and Moorish pirates, not so much of the piracy which was conducted by English merchant ships, not always confining themselves to the ships of nations at war with their country.