There can be no doubt, I think, that the 1633
text is here correct, though for clearness a comma must be inserted
after 'reasons'.
text is here correct, though for clearness a comma must be inserted
after 'reasons'.
John Donne
Again, 'Ex his probatur irrevincibiliter
a tempore demonstrato a Solino et propriis Epithetis Iani: eundem
fuisse Ogygem: Ianum et Noam . . . Sed Noa fuit proprium: Ogyges verum
Ianus et Proteus id est Vertumnus sunt solum praenomina ejus,' XV, Fo.
cv. No mention of the ark as a link occurs, but a ship figured on the
copper coins distributed at Rome on New Year's day, which was sacred
to Janus. The original connexion is probably found in Macrobius'
statement (_Saturn. _ I. 9) that among other titles Janus was invoked
as 'Consivius . . . a conserendo id est a propagine generis humani quae
Iano auctore conseritur'. Noah is the father of the extant human race.
PAGE =299=, ll. 114-17.
There can be no doubt, I think, that the 1633
text is here correct, though for clearness a comma must be inserted
after 'reasons'. The emendation of the 1635 editor which modern
editors have followed gives an awkward and, at the close, an absurdly
tautological sentence. It is not the reason, the rational faculty,
of sceptics which is like the bubbles blown by boys, that stretch too
thin, 'break and do themselves spill. ' What Donne says, is that the
reasons or arguments of those who answer sceptics, like bubbles which
break themselves, injure their authors, the apologists. The verse
wants a syllable--not a unique phenomenon in Donne's satires; but if
one is to be supplied 'so' would give the sense better than 'and'.
PAGE =300=, l. 129. _foggie Plot. _ The word 'foggie' has here the in
English obsolete, in Scotch and perhaps other dialects, still known
meaning of 'marshy', 'boggy'. The O. E. D. quotes, 'He that is fallen
into a depe foggy well and sticketh fast in it,' Coverdale, _Bk.
Death_, I. xl. 160; 'The foggy fens in the next county,' Fuller,
_Worthies_.
a tempore demonstrato a Solino et propriis Epithetis Iani: eundem
fuisse Ogygem: Ianum et Noam . . . Sed Noa fuit proprium: Ogyges verum
Ianus et Proteus id est Vertumnus sunt solum praenomina ejus,' XV, Fo.
cv. No mention of the ark as a link occurs, but a ship figured on the
copper coins distributed at Rome on New Year's day, which was sacred
to Janus. The original connexion is probably found in Macrobius'
statement (_Saturn. _ I. 9) that among other titles Janus was invoked
as 'Consivius . . . a conserendo id est a propagine generis humani quae
Iano auctore conseritur'. Noah is the father of the extant human race.
PAGE =299=, ll. 114-17.
There can be no doubt, I think, that the 1633
text is here correct, though for clearness a comma must be inserted
after 'reasons'. The emendation of the 1635 editor which modern
editors have followed gives an awkward and, at the close, an absurdly
tautological sentence. It is not the reason, the rational faculty,
of sceptics which is like the bubbles blown by boys, that stretch too
thin, 'break and do themselves spill. ' What Donne says, is that the
reasons or arguments of those who answer sceptics, like bubbles which
break themselves, injure their authors, the apologists. The verse
wants a syllable--not a unique phenomenon in Donne's satires; but if
one is to be supplied 'so' would give the sense better than 'and'.
PAGE =300=, l. 129. _foggie Plot. _ The word 'foggie' has here the in
English obsolete, in Scotch and perhaps other dialects, still known
meaning of 'marshy', 'boggy'. The O. E. D. quotes, 'He that is fallen
into a depe foggy well and sticketh fast in it,' Coverdale, _Bk.
Death_, I. xl. 160; 'The foggy fens in the next county,' Fuller,
_Worthies_.
