l. 45. _A patterne of your love._ The 'of our love' of 1633 _might_ mean 'for our love', but it is clear from the manner in which this stanza is given in _D_ that the copyist has misunderstood the construction--'our love' follows from the assumption that 'Countries, Townes, Courts' is the subject to 'Beg'. The colon and the capital letter would not make such a view impossible, as they might be given a merely emphasizing value; or if regarded as imperative the 'Beg' might be taken as in the third person: 'Countries, Townes, Courts--let them beg,' &c. Compare:
The God of Souldiers: With the consent of supreame Jove, informe Thy thoughts with Noblenesse. Shakespeare, _Cor._ V. iii. 70-2 (Simpson, _Shakespearian Punctuation_, p. 98).
But clearly here 'Beg' is in the second person plural, predicate to 'You whom reverend love', and 'your love' is the right reading.
He is trebly a fool because (1) he loves, (2) he expresses his love in verse, (3) he thereby enables some one to set the verse to music and by singing it to re-awaken the passion which composition had lulled to sleep.
This song, which is one of the obviously authentic lyrics which is not included in the _A18_, _N_, _TC_ collection, would seem to have undergone some revision after its first issue. The version given in _A25_, from which _Cy_ is copied, would seem to be the original, at least the readings of ll. 25-6 and ll. 29-30 do not look like corruptions. The reading 'beget' at l. 25 gives a better rhyme to 'yet' than 'admit'. In l. 29 _A25_ has obviously interchanged 'thine' and 'mine'. The slightly different version of _JC_ gives the correct order. The generally careful _D_, _H49_, _Lec_ group has an unusually faulty text of this poem. Among other mistakes it reads (with _S96_) 'Thee' for 'them' in l. 32.
'Lovers Infiniteness' is a strange title. It is not found in any of the MSS., and possibly should be 'Loves Infiniteness'. Yet the 'Lovers' suits the closing thought:
so we shall Be one, and one anothers All.
For a poem in obvious imitation of this, see _Appendix C_, p. 439.
ll. 1-11. The rhetoric and rhythm of Donne's elaborate stanzas depends a good deal on their right punctuation. Mine is an attempt to correct that of _1633_ without modernizing. The full stop after 'fall' is obviously an error, and so is, I think, the comma after 'spent'. The first six lines state in a rapid succession of clauses all that the poet has done to gain his lady's love. A new thought begins with 'Yet no more', &c.