I owe the right
punctuation
of this stanza to the Grolier
Club edition and Grosart.
Club edition and Grosart.
John Donne
'To be exalted is often
to become the instrument and prey of him who has exalted you. '
PAGE =307=, l. 296. _That many leagues at sea, now tir'd hee lyes. _
The reading of _G_ represents probably what Donne wrote. It is quite
clear that _1633_ was printed from a MS. identical with _A18_, _N_,
_TC_, and underwent considerable correction as it passed through the
press. In no poem does the text of one copy vary so much from that
of another as in this. Now in this MS. a word is dropped. The editor
supplied the gap by inserting 'o're-past', which simply repeats 'flown
long and fast'. _G_ shows what the dropped word was. 'Many leagues at
sea' is an adverbial phrase qualifying 'now tir'd he lies'.
ll. 301-10.
I owe the right punctuation of this stanza to the Grolier
Club edition and Grosart. The 'as' of l. 303 requires to be followed
by a comma. Missing this, Chambers closes the sentence at l. 307,
'head', leaving 'This fish would seem these' in the air. The words
'when all hopes fail' play with the idea of 'the hopeful Promontory',
or Cape of Good Hope.
PAGE =308=, ll. 321-2. _He hunts not fish, but as an officer,
Stayes in his court, at his owne net. _
Compare: 'A confidence in their owne strengths, a sacrificing to their
own Nets, an attributing of their securitie to their own wisedome or
power, may also retard the cause of God. ' _Sermons_, Judges xv. 20
(1622).
'And though some of the Fathers pared somewhat too neare the quick in
this point, yet it was not as in the Romane Church, to lay snares, and
spread nets for gain. ' _Sermons_ 80. 22. 216.
to become the instrument and prey of him who has exalted you. '
PAGE =307=, l. 296. _That many leagues at sea, now tir'd hee lyes. _
The reading of _G_ represents probably what Donne wrote. It is quite
clear that _1633_ was printed from a MS. identical with _A18_, _N_,
_TC_, and underwent considerable correction as it passed through the
press. In no poem does the text of one copy vary so much from that
of another as in this. Now in this MS. a word is dropped. The editor
supplied the gap by inserting 'o're-past', which simply repeats 'flown
long and fast'. _G_ shows what the dropped word was. 'Many leagues at
sea' is an adverbial phrase qualifying 'now tir'd he lies'.
ll. 301-10.
I owe the right punctuation of this stanza to the Grolier
Club edition and Grosart. The 'as' of l. 303 requires to be followed
by a comma. Missing this, Chambers closes the sentence at l. 307,
'head', leaving 'This fish would seem these' in the air. The words
'when all hopes fail' play with the idea of 'the hopeful Promontory',
or Cape of Good Hope.
PAGE =308=, ll. 321-2. _He hunts not fish, but as an officer,
Stayes in his court, at his owne net. _
Compare: 'A confidence in their owne strengths, a sacrificing to their
own Nets, an attributing of their securitie to their own wisedome or
power, may also retard the cause of God. ' _Sermons_, Judges xv. 20
(1622).
'And though some of the Fathers pared somewhat too neare the quick in
this point, yet it was not as in the Romane Church, to lay snares, and
spread nets for gain. ' _Sermons_ 80. 22. 216.
