Discussion Groups / English Usage / May 2009

Hello:

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I have done one braver thing
         Than all the Worthies did;
And yet a braver thence doth spring,
         Which is, to keep that hid.

It were but madness now to impart
         The skill of specular stone,
When he, which can have learn'd the art
         To cut it, can find none.

So, if I now should utter this,
         Others—because no more
Such stuff to work upon, there is—
         Would love, but as before:

But he who loveliness within
         Hath found, all outward loathes,
For he who color loves, and skin,
         Loves but their oldest clothes.

If, as I have, you also do
         Virtue in woman see,
And dare love that, and say so too,
         And forget the He and She;

And if this love, though placéd so,
         From profane men you hide,
Which will no faith on this bestow,
         Or, if they do, deride;

Then you have done a braver thing
         Than all the Worthies did;
And a braver thence will spring,
         Which is, to keep that hid.

The Undertaking
by John Donne (p. 103)
http://www.factmonster.com/t/lit/donne-songs-sonnets/undertaking.html
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Would you think
"And forget the He and She"
might be paraphrased as
"and forget the sexuality of the situation, the sexes involved?"

Also:
"Would love but as before." (online)
shows in my my Norton Critical edition as:
"Would love, but as before:"
However, I can't make sense of "but as before" in either of them.