PAGE =143=, l. 57. _His steeds nill be restrain'd._ I had adopted the reading 'nill' for 'will' conjecturally before I found it in _W_. There can be no doubt it is right. As printed, the two clauses (57-8) simply contradict each other. The use of 'nill' for 'will' was one of Spenser's Chaucerisms, and Donne comes closer to Spenser in the _Epithalamia_ than anywhere else. Sylvester uses it in his translation of Du Bartas: For I nill stiffly argue to and fro In nice opinions, whether so or so. And it occurs in Davison's _Poetical Rhapsody_: And therefore nill I boast of war. In Shakespeare, setting aside the phrase 'nill he, will he', we have: in scorn or friendship, nill I construe whether. ll. 81-2. _Till now thou wast but able To be what now thou art_; She has realized her potentiality; she is now actually what hitherto she has been only [Greek: en dynamei], therefore she 'puts on perfection'. 'Praeterea secundum Philosophum ... _qualibet potentiâ melior est eius actus_; nam forma est melior quam materia, et actio quam potentia activa: est enim finis eius.' Aquinas, _Summa_, xxv. i. See also Aristotle, _Met._ 1050 _a_ 2-16. This metaphysical doctrine is not contradicted by the religious exaltation of virginity, for it is not virginity as such which is preferred to marriage by the Church, but the virgin's dedication of herself to God: 'Virginitas inde honorata, quia Deo dicata.... Virgines ideo laudatae, quia Deo dicatae. Nec nos hoc in virginibus praedicamus, quod virgines sunt; sed quod Deo dicatae piâ continentiâ virgines. Nam, quod non temere dixerim, felicior mihi videtur nupta mulier quam virgo nuptura: habet enim iam illa quod ista adhuc cupit.... Illa uni studet placere cui data est: haec multis, incerta cui danda est,' &c.; August. _De Sanct. Virg._ I. x, xi. Compare Aquinas, _Summa_ II. 2, Quaest. clii. 3. Wedded to Christ the virgin puts on a higher perfection. SATYRES. The earliest date assignable to any of the _Satyres_ is 1593, or more probably 1594-5. On the back of the Harleian MS. 5110 (_H51_), in the British Museum, is inscribed:[1] Jhon Dunne his Satires Anno Domini 1593