_ I had adopted
the reading 'nill' for 'will' conjecturally before I found it in _W_.
the reading 'nill' for 'will' conjecturally before I found it in _W_.
John Donne
_
'This day both Gods Sons arose: The Sun of his Firmament, and the Son
of his bosome. ' _Sermons_ 80. 26. 255. 'And when thy Sun, thy soule
comes to set in thy death-bed, the Son of Grace shall suck it up into
glory. ' Ibid. 80. 45. 450.
Correctly read the line has a satiric quality which Donne's lines
rarely want, and in which this stanza abounds. I have chosen the
spelling 'Sonns' as that which is most commonly used in the MSS. for
'sonnes' and 'sunnes'.
PAGE =143=, l. 57. _His steeds nill be restrain'd.
_ I had adopted
the reading 'nill' for 'will' conjecturally before I found it in _W_.
There can be no doubt it is right. As printed, the two clauses (57-8)
simply contradict each other. The use of 'nill' for 'will' was one
of Spenser's Chaucerisms, and Donne comes closer to Spenser in the
_Epithalamia_ than anywhere else. Sylvester uses it in his translation
of Du Bartas:
For I nill stiffly argue to and fro
In nice opinions, whether so or so.
And it occurs in Davison's _Poetical Rhapsody_:
And therefore nill I boast of war.
In Shakespeare, setting aside the phrase 'nill he, will he', we have:
in scorn or friendship, nill I construe whether.
ll. 81-2. _Till now thou wast but able
To be what now thou art_;
She has realized her potentiality; she is now actually what hitherto
she has been only [Greek: en dynamei], therefore she 'puts on
perfection'. 'Praeterea secundum Philosophum . . . _qualibet potentia
melior est eius actus_; nam forma est melior quam materia, et actio
quam potentia activa: est enim finis eius. ' Aquinas, _Summa_, xxv. i.
'This day both Gods Sons arose: The Sun of his Firmament, and the Son
of his bosome. ' _Sermons_ 80. 26. 255. 'And when thy Sun, thy soule
comes to set in thy death-bed, the Son of Grace shall suck it up into
glory. ' Ibid. 80. 45. 450.
Correctly read the line has a satiric quality which Donne's lines
rarely want, and in which this stanza abounds. I have chosen the
spelling 'Sonns' as that which is most commonly used in the MSS. for
'sonnes' and 'sunnes'.
PAGE =143=, l. 57. _His steeds nill be restrain'd.
_ I had adopted
the reading 'nill' for 'will' conjecturally before I found it in _W_.
There can be no doubt it is right. As printed, the two clauses (57-8)
simply contradict each other. The use of 'nill' for 'will' was one
of Spenser's Chaucerisms, and Donne comes closer to Spenser in the
_Epithalamia_ than anywhere else. Sylvester uses it in his translation
of Du Bartas:
For I nill stiffly argue to and fro
In nice opinions, whether so or so.
And it occurs in Davison's _Poetical Rhapsody_:
And therefore nill I boast of war.
In Shakespeare, setting aside the phrase 'nill he, will he', we have:
in scorn or friendship, nill I construe whether.
ll. 81-2. _Till now thou wast but able
To be what now thou art_;
She has realized her potentiality; she is now actually what hitherto
she has been only [Greek: en dynamei], therefore she 'puts on
perfection'. 'Praeterea secundum Philosophum . . . _qualibet potentia
melior est eius actus_; nam forma est melior quam materia, et actio
quam potentia activa: est enim finis eius. ' Aquinas, _Summa_, xxv. i.
