My soul, like Gideon's lamp, from her crack'd urn
Shall Death's black night to endless lustre turn.
An Elegy, &c.] It is always well to placate Nemesis before finding fault with a fellow-creature's complaints. But this piece, like some others, does rather illustrate that 'tendency to grizzle' which has been noticed in the Introduction. It was no doubt natural to King, and was probably confirmed in him by his wife's early death. It is worth noticing that—a thing rare in his time—he never remarried.
33 this] MS. 'his'.
73 'Than' for 'then' is much rarer than the converse, though we have it once supra. It is odd too here, for 'then' would have done just as well.
90 'Their' = Origen and the Priscillianists.
93 Posidippus? But the thing was a commonplace.
94 Side-note in orig.: Non nasci, aut quam citissime mori.