ABSTRACT
Vcr. 218. That's Velvet] Much superior to the Original in brevity and elegance. . . . [181-2] Vcr. 273. As men from Jails] A line so smooth that our Author thought proper to adopt it from the Original. There are many such, as I have before observed, which shew, that if Donne had taken equal pains, he need not have left his numbers so much more rugged and disgusting, than many of his cotemporaries, especially one so exquisitely melodious as Drummond of Hawthornden; who, in truth, more than Fairfax, Waller, or Denham, deserves to be called the first polisher of English Versification. . . . [230] Ver. 286. My Wit] The private character of Donne was very amiable and interesting; particularly so, on account of his secret marriage with the daughter of Sir George More; of the difficulties he underwent on this marriage; of his constant affection to his wife, his affliction at her death, and the sensibility he displayed towards all his friends and relations.
