l. 105. _Whereas th'old ... In great hals._ The line as I have printed it combines the versions of _1633_ and the later editions. It is found in several MSS. Some of these, on the other hand, like _1633-69_, read 'where'; but 'where's' with a plural subject following was quite idiomatic. Compare: 'Here needs no spies nor eunuchs,' p. 81, l. 39; 'With firmer age returns our liberties,' p. 115, l. 77. At p. 165, l. 182, the MSS. point to 'cryes his flatterers' as the original version. See Franz, _Shak.-Gram._ § 672; Knecht, _Die Kongruenz zwischen Subjekt und Prädikat_ (1911), p. 28. Donne has other instances of irregular concord, or of the plural form in 's', and 'th': by thy fathers wrath By all paines which want and divorcement hath. P. 111, l. 8. Had'st thou staid there, and look'd out at her eyes, All had ador'd thee that now from thee flies. P. 285, l. 17. Those unlick't beare-whelps, unfil'd pistolets That (more than Canon shot) availes or lets. P. 97, l. 32. The rhyme makes the form here indisputable. The MSS. point to a more frequent use of 'hath' with a plural subject than the editions have preserved. The above three instances seem all plurals. In other cases the individuals form a whole, or there is ellipsis: All Kings, and all their favorites, All glory of honors, beauties, wits, The Sunne it selfe which makes times, as they passe, Is elder by a year, now, then it was. _The Anniversarie_, p. 24, ll. 1-4. He that but tasts, he that devours, And he that leaves all, doth as well. _Communitie_, p. 33, ll. 20-1. PAGE =154=, l. 107. _meanes blesse_. The reading of _1633_ has the support of the best MSS. Grosart and Chambers prefer the reading of the later editions, 'Meane's blest.' This, it would seem to me, needs the definite article. The other reading gives quite the same sense, 'in all things means (i.e. middle ways, moderate measures) bring blessings': Rectius vives, Licini, neque altum Semper urgendo neque, dum procellas Cautus horrescis, nimium premendo Litus iniquum. Auream quisquis mediocritatem Diligit, tutus caret obsoleti Sordibus tecti, caret invidenda Sobrius aula. Horace, _Odes_, ii. 10. The general tenor of the closing lines recalls Horace's treatment of the same theme in _Sat._ ii. 2. 88, 125, more than either Juvenal, _Sat._ ix, or Persius, _Sat._ vi. Grosart states that 'means, then as now, meant riches, possessions, but never the mean or middle'. But see O.E.D., which quotes for the plural in this sense: 'Tempering goodly well Their contrary dislikes with loved means.' Spenser, _Hymns_. In the singular Bacon has, 'But to speake in a Meane.' _Of Adversitie_. PAGE =154=. SATYRE III.