Damnabitque oculos, et sibi verba dabit.
Adspiciet dominae lacrimas; plorabit et ipse:
Et dicet, poenas garrulus iste dabit.
Ovid, Amores, II. ii. 51-60.
Page 177, l. 60. Strive. Later editions and Chambers read 'strives', but 'ordinance' was used as a plural: 'The goodly ordinance which were xii great Bombardes of brasse', and 'these six small iron ordinance.' O.E.D. The word in this sense is now spelt 'ordnance'.
l. 66. the'Bermuda. It is probably unnecessary to change this to 'the'Bermudas.' The singular without the article is quite regular.
l. 67. Darknesse, lights elder brother. The 'elder' of the MSS. is grammatically more correct than the 'eldest' of the editions. 'We must return again to our stronghold, faith, and end with this, that this beginning was, and before it, nothing. It is elder than darkness, which is elder than light; and was before confusion, which is elder than order, by how much the universal Chaos preceded forms and distinctions.' Essays in Divinity (ed. Jessop, 1855), p. 46.
Page 178. The Calme.
l. 4. A blocke afflicts, &c. Aesop's Fables. Sir Thomas Rowe recalled Donne's use of the fable, when he was Ambassador at the Court of the Mogul. Of Ibrahim Khan, the Governor of Surat after Zufilkhar Khan, he writes: 'He was good but soe easy that he does no good; wee are not lesse afflicted with a block then before with a storck.' The Embassy, &c. (Hakl. Soc.), i. 82.
l. 8. thy mistresse glasse. This poem, like the last, is probably addressed to Christopher Brooke, but it is not so headed in any edition or MS. The Grolier Club editor ascribes the first heading to both.