l. 44. _the pale wretch shivered._ I have (with the support of the best MSS.) changed the semicolon to a full stop here, not that as the punctuation of the editions goes it is wrong, but because it is ambiguous and has misled both Chambers and the Grolier Club editor. By changing the semicolon to a comma they make ll. 43-4 an adverbial clause of time which, with the conditional clause 'Had it beene some bad smell', modifies 'he would have thought ... had wrought'. This seems to me out of the question. The 'when' links the statement 'the pale wretch shivered' to what precedes, not to what follows. As soon as the perfume reached his nose he shivered, knowing what it meant. A new thought begins with 'Had it been some bad smell'. The use of the semicolon, as at one time equivalent to a little less than a full stop, at another to a little more than a comma, leads occasionally to these ambiguities. The few changes which I have made in the punctuation of this poem have been made with a view to obtaining a little more consistency and clearness without violating the principles of seventeenth-century punctuation. l. 49. _The precious Vnicornes._ See Browne, _Vulgar Errors_, iii. 23: 'Great account and much profit is made of _Unicornes horn_, at least of that which beareth the name thereof,' &c. He speaks later of the various objects 'extolled for precious Horns'; and Donne's epithet doubtless has the same application, i.e. to the horns. PAGE =86=. ELEGIE V. l. 8. _With cares rash sodaine stormes being o'rspread._ I have let the _1633_ reading stand, though I feel sure that Donne is not responsible for 'being o'rspread'. Printing from _D_, _H49_, _Lec_, in which probably the word 'cruel' had been dropped, the editor or printer supplied 'being' to adjust the metre. I have not corrected it because I am not sure which is Donne's version. Clearly the line has undergone some remodelling. My own view is that the earliest form is suggested by _B_, _S_, _S96_, With Cares rash sudden storms o'rpressed, where 'o'erpress' means 'conquer, overwhelm'. Compare Shakespeare's but in my sight Deare heart forbear to glance thine eye aside. What need'st thou wound with cunning when thy might Is more than my o'erprest defence can bide. _Sonnets_, 139. 8. He bestrid an o'erpressed Roman. _Coriolanus_, II. ii. 97. To begin with, Donne described his grey hairs by a bold synecdoche, leaving the greyness to be inferred: 'My head o'erwhelmed, o'ermastered by Cares storms.' But 'o'erpressed' was harshly used and was easily changed to 'o'erspread', which was made more appropriate by substituting the effect, 'hoariness,' for the cause, 'Cares storms.' This is what we find in _JC_ and such a good MS. as _W_: With cares rash sudden horiness o'erspread.