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> I'm not sure what's going on here. I've got a copy of Donne with the > (strange to us) original spellings. It's all over the place, like in the > "Songs and Sonets[?]" the second to last line of "The Blossome[?]" reads: > > "There, to another friend, whom wee shall finde" > > and Donne is not all *that* much earlier than Milton. Even as late as > "Devotions Upon Emergent Occaisions" (1624) there is both "we" and "wee" in > "Meditation XV": > > "...wee lie downe in a hope, that wee shall rise the stronger; and we lie > downe in a knowledge, that wee shall rise no more...." > > so it seems like there is no standard spelling. > > > > the erratum for the first edition of PL-"Lib. 2. > > v. 414, for we read wee." > What's going on is that Milton used both, but seems to have had reasons for his use. His correction indicates that it was not a matter of indifference to him which he used where. Marcia