l. 17. _Who hath a plow-land, &c._ This has nothing to do, as Grosart seems to think, with the name for a certain measurement of land in the north of England corresponding to a hide in the south. A 'plow-land' here is an arable or cultivated field. Possibly the 'a' has crept in and one should read simply 'plow-land', or, like _P_, 'plow-lands.' Otherwise 'Who hath' is to be slurred in reading the line. The meaning of the passage seems to be that though a man puts all his own seed into his land, he is quite willing to reap the corn which has sprung from others' seed, brought thither, it may be, by wind or birds. l. 30. _To runne all countries, a wild roguery._ The Oxford English Dictionary quotes this line, giving to 'roguery' the meaning of 'a knavish, rascally act'. But Grosart is certainly right in explaining it as 'vagrancy'. In love, Donne does not wish to be a captive bound to one, but he does not wish on the other hand to be a vagrant with no settled abode. The O.E.D. dates the poem c. 1620, which is much too late. Donne was not writing in this manner after he took orders. It cannot be later than 1601, and is probably earlier. l. 32. _more putrifi'd_, or, as in the MSS., 'worse putrifi'd.' The latter is probably correct, but the difference is trifling. By 'putrifi'd' Donne means 'made salt' and so less fit for drinking. The 'purifi'd' of some editions points to a misunderstanding of Donne's meaning; for saltness and putrefaction were not identical: 'For Salt as incorruptible was the Symbol of friendship, and before the other service was offered unto their guests.' Browne, _Vulgar Errors_, v. 22. PAGE =84=. ELEGIE IV. l. 2. _All thy suppos'd escapes._ He is addressing the lady. All her supposed transgressions (e.g. of chastity) are laid to the poet's charge. 'Escape' = 'An inconsiderate transgression; a peccadillo, venial error. (In Shaks. with different notion: an outrageous transgression.) Applied _esp._ to breaches of chastity.' O.E.D. It is probably in Shakespeare's sense that Donne uses the word: _Brabantio._ For your sake, jewel, I am glad at soul I have no other child; For thy escape would teach me tyranny, To hang clogs on them. Shakespeare, _Othello_, I. iii. 195-8. ll. 7-8. _Though he had wont to search with glazed eyes, As though he came to kill a Cockatrice,_ i.e. 'with staring eyes'. I take 'glazed' to be the past participle of the verb 'glaze', 'to stare': I met a lion Who glaz'd upon me, and went surly by, Without annoying me. Shakespeare, _Jul. Caes._ I. iii. 20-2. The past participle is thus used by Shakespeare in: 'With time's deformed hand' (_Com. of Err._ V. i. 298), i.e. 'deforming hand'; 'deserved children' (_Cor._ III. i. 292), i.e. 'deserving'. See Franz, _Shakespeare-Grammatik_, § 661. The Cockatrice or Basilisk killed by a glance of its eye: