Up so much truth, as could I here pursue,
Might make the fable of good Woemen true.
The name is given as 'Sal', but corrected to 'Sil' in the margin. Other MSS. have 'Sell'. It is doubtless 'Cil', a contraction for 'Cecilia'. Chambers inadvertently printed 'still'.
The language of Jonson's Epitaph harmonizes ill with that of his Epigram. Of all titles Jonson loved best that of 'honest', but 'honest', in a man, meant with Jonson having the courage to tell people disagreeable truths, not to conceal your dislikes. He was a candid friend to the living; after death—nil nisi bonum.
For the relation of this Elegie to that beginning 'Death, be not proud' (p. [422]) see Text and Canon, &c., p. [cxliii].
The 1633 text of this poem is practically identical with that of D, H49, Lec. With these MSS. it reads in l. 27 'life' for the 'lives' of other MSS. and editions, and 'but' for 'though' in the last line. The only variant in 1633 is 'worke' for 'workes' in l. 45. The latter reading has the support of other MSS. and is very probably what Donne wrote. Such use of a plural verb after two singular subjects of closely allied import was common. See Franz, Shakespeare-Grammatik, § 673, and the examples quoted there, e.g. 'Both wind and tide stays for this gentleman,' Com. of Err. IV. i. 46, where Rowe corrects to 'stay'; 'Both man and master is possessed,' ibid. IV. iv. 89.
l. 10. Eating the best first, well preserv'd to last. The 'fruite' or 'fruites' of A18, N, TC, which is as old as P (1623), is probably a genuine variant. The reference is to the elaborate dainties of the second course at Elizabethan banquets, the dessert. Sleep, in Macbeth's famous speech, is
great Nature's second course,
and Donne uses the same metaphor of the Eucharist: 'This fasting then ... is but a continuation of a great feast: where the first course (that which we begin to serve in now) is Manna, food of Angels,—plentiful, frequent preaching; but the second course is the very body and blood of Christ Jesus, shed for us and given to us, in that Blessed Sacrament, of which himself makes us worthy receivers at that time.' Sermons. 'The most precious and costly dishes are always reserved for the last services, but yet there is wholesome meat before too.' Ibid.