The following air is found in Egerton MS. 2013. As given here it has been conjecturally corrected by Mr. Barclay Squire:
Go and catch a falling star Get with child a mandrake roote, Tell me where all past times are Or who cleft the Devil's foot, Teach me to hear mermaid's singing Or to keep of Envy's singing And find what wind Serves to advance an honest mind.]
This is set to the following air in Corkine's _Second Book of Ayres_ (1612). As given here it has been transcribed by Mr. Barclay Squire, omitting the lute accompaniment:
'Tis true 'tis day, What though it be? And will you there-fore rise from me? What, will you rise, What, will you rise be-cause 'tis light? Did we lye downe be-cause 'twas night? Love that in spight of dark-nesse brought us he-ther, In spight of light should keepe us still to-ge-ther, In spight of light should keepe us still to-ge-ther, In spight of light should keepe us still to-ge-ther.]
From Corkine's _Second Book of Ayres_ (1612).
PAGES =75-8=. Of the epigrams sixteen are given in all the editions, _1633-69_. Of these, thirteen are in _A18_, _N_, _TC_, none in _D_, _H49_, _Lec_. Of the remaining three, two are in _W_, one in _HN_, both good authorities. I have added three of interest from _W_, of which one is in _HN_, and all three are in _O'F_. _W_ includes among the _Epigrams_ the short poem _On a Jeat Ring Sent_, printed generally with the _Songs and Sonets_. In _HN_ there is one and in the Burley MS. are three more. Of these the one in _HN_ and two of those in _Bur_ are merely coarse, and there is no use burdening Donne with more of this kind than he is already responsible for. The last in _Bur_ runs:
Why are maydes wits than boyes of lower strayne? Eve was a daughter of the ribb not brayne.
Donne's epigrams were much admired, and some of his elegies were classed with them as satirical 'evaporations of wit'. Drummond says: 'I think if he would he might easily be the best epigrammatist we have found in English; of which I have not yet seen any come near the Ancients. Compare his Marry and Love with Tasso's stanzas against beauty; one shall hardly know who hath best.' The stanzas referred to are entitled _Sopra la bellezza_, and begin:
Questo che tanto il cieco volgo apprezza.