A careful study of the textual notes to this poem will show that there is a considerable difference between the text of this poem as given for the first time in _1635_, and that of the majority of the MSS. It is very difficult, however, to decide between them as the differences are not generally such as to suggest that one reading is necessarily right, the other wrong. The chief variants are these: 7 'parents' and 'fathers'. Here I fancy the 'parents' of the MSS. is right, and that 'fathers' in the editions and in a late MS. like _O'F_ is due to the identification of Donne's mistress with his wife. Only the father of Anne More was alive at the time of their first acquaintance. It is not at all certain, however, that this poem is addressed to Anne More, and in any case Donne would probably have disguised the details. The change of 'parents' to 'fathers' is more likely than the opposite. In l. 12 'wayes' (edd.) and 'meanes' (MSS.) are practically indistinguishable; nor is there much to choose between the two versions of l. 18: 'My soule from other lands to thee shall soare' (edd.) and 'From other lands my soule towards thee shall soare' (MSS.). In each case the version of the editions is slightly the better. In l. 28, on the other hand, I have adopted 'mindes' without hesitation although here the MSS. vary. There is no question of changing the mind, but there is of changing the mind's habit, of adopting a boy's cast of thought and manner: as Rosalind says, and in my heart Lie there what hidden woman's fear there will, We'll have a swashing and a martial outside, As many other mannish cowards have That do outface it with their semblances. _As You Like It_, I. iii. 114-18. In l. 35 the reading 'Lives fuellers', i.e. 'Life's fuellers', which is found in such early and good MSS. as _D_, _H49_, _Lec_ and _W_, is very remarkable. If I were convinced that it is correct I should regard it as decisive and prefer the MS. readings throughout. But 'Loves fuellers', though also a strange phrase, seems more easy of interpretation, and applicable. In l. 37 there can, I think, be no doubt that the original reading is preserved by _A18_, _N_, _S_, _TCD_, and _W_. Will quickly knowe thee, and knowe thee, and, alas! The sudden, brutal change in the sense of the word 'knowe' is quite in Donne's manner. The reasons for omitting or softening it are obvious, and may excuse my not restoring it. The whole of these central lines reveal that strange bad taste, some radical want of delicacy, which mars not only Donne's poems and lighter prose but even at times the sermons. In l. 49 the reading of the MSS. _A18_, _N_, _TC_; _D_, _H49_, _Lec_, and _W_ is also probably original: Nor praise, nor dispraise me; Blesse nor curse.