The text of this poem in the editions is that of _A18_, _N_, _TC_ among the MSS. A slightly different recension is found in most of the other MSS. The chief difference is that the latter read 'love' for 'loves' at ll. 9, 14, and 19. They also, however, read 'least' for 'high'st' at l. 12. In l. 19 they vacillate between 'once' and 'our'. It would not be difficult to defend either version. The only variation from the printed text which I have admitted is that on which all the MSS. are unanimous, viz. 'first' for 'short' in l. 26; 'short' is an obvious blunder. NOTE ON THE MUSIC TO WHICH CERTAIN OF DONNE'S SONGS WERE SET. A song meant for the Elizabethans a poem intended to be sung, generally to the accompaniment of the lute. Donne had clearly no thought of his songs being an exception to this rule: But when I have done so, Some man his art and voice to show Doth set and sing my paine. Yet it is difficult to think of some, perhaps the majority, of Donne's _Songs and Sonets_ as being written to be sung. Their sonorous and rhetorical rhythm, the elaborate stanzas which, like the prolonged periods of the _Elegies_, seem to give us a foretaste of the Miltonic verse-paragraph, suggest speech,--impassioned, rhythmical speech rather than the melody of song. We are not haunted by a sense of the tune to which the song should go, as we are in reading the lyrics of the Elizabethan Anthologies or of Robert Burns. Yet some of Donne's songs _were_ set to music. A note in one group of MSS. describes three of them as 'Songs which were made to certain ayres which were made before'. One of these is _The Baite_, which must have been set to the same air as Marlowe's song. I reproduce here a lute-accompaniment found in William Corkine's _Second Book of Ayres_ (1612). The airs of the other two (see p. 18) I have not been able to find, nor are they known to Mr. Barclay Squire, who has kindly helped and guided me in this matter of the music. With his aid I have reproduced here the music of two other songs, and, at another place, that of one of Donne's great _Hymns_. PAGE =8=. SONG. The following air is found in Egerton MS. 2013. As given here it has been conjecturally corrected by Mr. Barclay Squire: [Music: Go and catch a falling star Get with child a mandrake roote, Tell me where all past times are Or who cleft the Devil's foot, Teach me to hear mermaid's singing Or to keep of Envy's singing And find what wind Serves to advance an honest mind.] PAGE =23=. BREAKE OF DAY. This is set to the following air in Corkine's _Second Book of Ayres_ (1612). As given here it has been transcribed by Mr. Barclay Squire, omitting the lute accompaniment: [Music: