Nor so immurèd would I have
Thee live, as dead, or in thy grave;
But walk abroad, yet wisely well
Keep 'gainst my coming sentinel.
And think each man thou seest doth doom
Thy thoughts to say, I back am come.
Farther on we have the rather pretty variant:—
"Let them call thee wondrous fair,
Crown of women, yet despair".
Eight lines lower "virtuous" is read for "gentle," and the omission of some small words throws some light on a change in Herrick's metrical views as he grew older. The words omitted are bracketed:—
"[And] Let thy dreams be only fed
With this, that I am in thy bed.
And [thou] then turning in that sphere,
Waking findst [shall find] me sleeping there.
But [yet] if boundless lust must scale
Thy fortress and must needs prevail
'Gainst thee and force a passage in," etc.
Other variants are: "Creates the action" for "That makes the action"; "Glory" for "Triumph"; "my last signet" for "this compression"; "turn again in my full triumph" for "come again, As one triumphant," and "the height of womankind" for "all faith of womankind".
The body sins not, 'tis the will, etc. A maxim of law Latin: Actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea.
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