But what, in this case, does Donne ask God's pardon for? It is not _his_ fault that their apparels are fresh or costly. 'God pardon them!' would be the appropriate exclamation. What Donne asks God's pardon for is, that he too should be found in the 'Presence' again, after what he has already seen of Court life and 'the wretchedness of suitors': as though Dante, who had seen Hell and escaped, should wilfully return thither. l. 189. _Cutchannel_: i.e. Cochineal. The ladies' painted faces suggest the comparison. In or shortly before 1603 an English ship, the _Margaret and John_, made a piratical attack on the Venetian ship, _La Babiana_. An indemnity was paid, and among the stolen articles are mentioned 54 weights of cochineal, valued at £50-7. Our school Histories tell us of Turkish and Moorish pirates, not so much of the piracy which was conducted by English merchant ships, not always confining themselves to the ships of nations at war with their country. PAGE =166=, ll. 205-6. _trye ... thighe._ I have, with the support of _Ash._ 38, printed thus instead of _tryes ... thighes_. If we retain 'tryes', then we should also, with several MSS., read (l. 204) 'survayes'; and if 'thighes' be correct we should expect 'legges'. The regular construction keeps the infinitive throughout, 'refine', 'lift', 'call', 'survay', 'trye'. If we suppose that Donne shifted the construction as he got away from the governing verb, the change would naturally begin with 'survayes'. ll. 215-6. _A Pursevant would have ravish'd him away._ The reading of three independent MSS., _Q_, _O'F_, and _JC_, of 'Topcliffe' for 'Pursevant' is a very interesting clue to the Catholic point of view from which Donne's _Satyres_ were written. Richard Topcliffe (1532-1609) was one of the cruellest of the creatures employed to ferret out and examine by torture Catholics and Jesuits. It was he who tortured Southwell the poet. In 1593 he was on the commission against Jesuits, and in 1594-5 was in prison. John Hammond, the civilist, who is possibly referred to in _Satyre V_, l. 87, sat with him on several inquiries. See _D.N.B._ and authorities quoted there; also Meyer, _Die Katholische Kirche unter Elisabeth_, 1910. PAGE =167=, ll. 233-4. _men big enough to throw Charing Crosse for a barre._ Of one of Harvey's pamphlets Nash writes: 'Credibly it was once rumoured about the Court, that the Guard meant to try masteries with it before the Queene, and, instead of throwing the sledge or the hammer, to hurle it foorth at the armes end for a wager.' _Have with you, &c._ (M^{c}Kerrow, iii, p. 36.) ll. 235-6. _Queenes man, and fine Living, barrells of beefe, flaggons of wine._ Compare Cowley's _Loves Riddle_, III. i: _Apl._ He shew thee first all the coelestial signs, And to begin, look on that horned head. _Aln._ Whose is't? Jupiters? _Apl._ No, tis the Ram! Next that the spacious Bull fills up the place.