Take heed what giftes and favors you receive,
. . . . . . . . .
Beleeve not oathes or much protesting men,
Credit no vowes nor no bewayling songs.
Joshua Sylvester (attributed to Donne).
What follows is ambiguous. As punctuated in 1633 the lines run:
some vaine disport,
On this side, sinne: with that place may comport.
This must mean, practically repeating what has been said: 'Some vain amusements which, on this side of the line separating the cloister from the Court, would be sin; are on that side, in the Court, becoming—amusements, sinful in the cloister, are permissible at Court.' The last line thus contains a sharp antithesis. But can 'on this side' mean 'in the cloister'? Donne is not writing from the cloister, and if he had been would say 'In this place'. 'Faith', he says elsewhere, 'is not on this side Knowledge but beyond it.' Sermons 50. 36. 325. This is what he means here, and I have so punctuated it, following 1719 and subsequent editions: 'Some vain disport, so long as it falls short of actual sin, is permissible at Court.'
l. 48. what none else lost: i.e. innocence. Others never had it.