18 'But which of us poor mortals' 1668, MS.
20, 21, &c. have] ha' 1668.
25 ire] Dire MS., a word of which a unique instance in the sense of 'dire quality' is quoted in the N.E.D. from Anthony à Wood. The scribe may have misunderstood 'important' ( = 'importunate').
39 flown] got MS.
41 This quaint anti-climax is one of the not very few indications which make of Flatman a sort of rough draft of Prior.
42 seq. Translations of the Psalms have been so numerous—and so bad—that it is difficult to know whether Flatman had any particular translator or translators in his mind while writing the last stanza. It may have been merely the usual Sternhold and Hopkins. At any rate his own friend Tate did not join Brady in lèse-poésie (as well as lèse-majesté against the Son of Jesse) till thirty years after Woodford wrote and eight after Flatman's own death.
55 Restor'd] Restore MS.
59 plac'd] set MS.
63 sacred om. MS.