Being a mayde still, gott this song on mee.
l. 25. Now if this song, &c. By interchanging the stops at 'evill' and at 'passe' the old editions have obscured these lines. Mr. Chambers, accepting the full stop at 'evill', prints:—
If thou forget the rhyme as thou dost pass,
Then write;
The reason for writing is not clear. 'If thou forget,' &c. explains ''Twill be good prose'. 'Read this without attending to the rhymes and you will find it good prose.' If we drop the epithet 'good', this criticism will apply to a considerable portion of metaphysical poetry.
Page 205, l. 30. thy zanee, i.e. thy imitator, as the Merry-Andrew imitates the Mountebank:
He's like the Zani to a tumbler
That tries tricks after him to make men laugh.
Jonson, Every Man out of his Humour, IV. i.