For the Basis above
is large and circular but not exactly round, and after it by degrees
endeth in a cone or dull and blunt round point .
is large and circular but not exactly round, and after it by degrees
endeth in a cone or dull and blunt round point .
John Donne
I have made an emendation here which seems to me to combine
happily the text of _1633_ and that of the later editions. It seems
to me that _1633_ has dropped 'all', _1635-69_ have dropped 'call'. I
thought the line as I give it was in _O'F_, but found on inquiry I had
misread the collation. I should withdraw it, but cannot find it in my
heart to do so.
l. 52. _Points downewards. _ I think the MS. reading is probably right,
because (1) 'Pants' is the same as 'hath palpitation'; (2) Donne
alludes to the anatomy of the heart, in the same terms, in the
_Essayes in Divinity_, p. 74 (ed. Jessop, 1855): 'O Man, which art
said to be the epilogue, and compendium of all this world, and the
Hymen and matrimonial knot of eternal and mortal things . . . and was
made by God's hands, not His commandment; and hast thy head erected to
heaven, and all others to the centre, that yet only thy heart of all
others points downward, and only trembles. '
The reference in each case is to the anatomy of the day: 'The figure
of it, as Hippocrates saith in his Booke _de Corde_ is Pyramidall, or
rather turbinated and somewhat answering to the proportion of a Pine
Apple, because a man is broad and short chested.
For the Basis above
is large and circular but not exactly round, and after it by degrees
endeth in a cone or dull and blunt round point . . . His lower part is
called the Vertex or top, _Mucro_ or point, the Cone, the heighth of
the heart. Hippocrates calleth it the taile which Galen saith . . . is
the basest part, as the Basis is the noblest. ' Helkiah Crooke: [Greek:
MIKROKOSMOGR? PHI? ], _A Description of the Body of Man, &c. _ (1631),
Book I, chap. ii, _Of the Heart_.
'The heart therefore is called [Greek: kardia apo tou kerdainesthai],
(_sic. i. e.
happily the text of _1633_ and that of the later editions. It seems
to me that _1633_ has dropped 'all', _1635-69_ have dropped 'call'. I
thought the line as I give it was in _O'F_, but found on inquiry I had
misread the collation. I should withdraw it, but cannot find it in my
heart to do so.
l. 52. _Points downewards. _ I think the MS. reading is probably right,
because (1) 'Pants' is the same as 'hath palpitation'; (2) Donne
alludes to the anatomy of the heart, in the same terms, in the
_Essayes in Divinity_, p. 74 (ed. Jessop, 1855): 'O Man, which art
said to be the epilogue, and compendium of all this world, and the
Hymen and matrimonial knot of eternal and mortal things . . . and was
made by God's hands, not His commandment; and hast thy head erected to
heaven, and all others to the centre, that yet only thy heart of all
others points downward, and only trembles. '
The reference in each case is to the anatomy of the day: 'The figure
of it, as Hippocrates saith in his Booke _de Corde_ is Pyramidall, or
rather turbinated and somewhat answering to the proportion of a Pine
Apple, because a man is broad and short chested.
For the Basis above
is large and circular but not exactly round, and after it by degrees
endeth in a cone or dull and blunt round point . . . His lower part is
called the Vertex or top, _Mucro_ or point, the Cone, the heighth of
the heart. Hippocrates calleth it the taile which Galen saith . . . is
the basest part, as the Basis is the noblest. ' Helkiah Crooke: [Greek:
MIKROKOSMOGR? PHI? ], _A Description of the Body of Man, &c. _ (1631),
Book I, chap. ii, _Of the Heart_.
'The heart therefore is called [Greek: kardia apo tou kerdainesthai],
(_sic. i. e.
