<50.3> Thus Middleton, in his MORE DISSEMBLERS BESIDES WOMEN,
printed in 1657, but written before 1626, says:--
"But for modesty,
I should fall foul in words upon fond man,
That can forget his excellence and honour,
His serious meditations, being the end
Of his creation, to learn well to die;
And live a PRISONER TO A WOMAN'S EYE."
<50.4> Original reads GODS; the present word is substituted
in accordance with a MS. copy of the song printed by the late
Dr. Bliss, in his edition of Woods ATHENAE. If Dr. Bliss had
been aware of the extraordinary corruptions under which the text
of LUCASTA laboured, he would have had less hesitation in adopting
BIRDS as the true reading. The "Song to Althea," is a favourable
specimen of the class of composition to which it belongs; but
I fear that it has been over-estimated.
<50.5> Percy very unnecessarily altered LIKE COMMITTED LINNETS
to LINNET-LIKE CONFINED (Percy's RELIQUES, ii. 247; Moxon's ed.)
Ellis (SPECIMENS OF EARLY ENGLISH POETS, ed. 1801, iii. 252)
says that this latter reading is "more intelligible." It is not,
however, either what Lovelace wrote, or what (it may be presumed)
he intended to write, and nothing, it would seem, can be clearer
than the passage as it stands, COMMITTED signifying, in fact,
nothing more than CONFINED.
Pages:
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156