;
'the mere perdition of the Turkish fleet,' Shakespeare, _Othello_,
II.
'the mere perdition of the Turkish fleet,' Shakespeare, _Othello_,
II.
John Donne
This is not a lucid or just enough thought to warrant
departure from the better authorized text.
l. 27. _prone to more evills_; The reading 'mere evils' of several
MSS. , including _D_, _H49_, _Lec_, is tempting and _may_ be right.
In that case 'meere' has the now obsolete meaning of 'pure,
unadulterated', 'meere English', 'meere Irish', &c. in O. E. D. , or
more fully, 'absolute, entire, sheer, perfect, downright', as in
'Th'obstinacie, willfull disobedience, meere lienge and disceite of
the countrie gentlemen,' _Hist. MSS. Com. _ (1600), quoted in O. E. D.
;
'the mere perdition of the Turkish fleet,' Shakespeare, _Othello_,
II. ii. 3. Such a strong adjective would however come better after
'devills' in the next line. Placed here it disturbs the climax. What
Donne says here is that men in the country become beasts, and more
prone to evil than beasts because of their higher faculties:
If lecherous goats, if serpents envious
Cannot be damn'd; Alas; why should I bee?
Why should intent or reason, borne in mee,
Make sinnes, else equall, in mee more heinous?
_Holy Sonnets_, IX, p. 326.
And in this same letter, ll. 41-2, he develops the thought further.
PAGE =182=, ll. 59-62. _Only in this one thing, be no Galenist, &c. _
The Galenists perceived in the living body four humours; hot, cold,
moist, and dry, and held that in health these were present in fixed
proportions. Diseases were due to disturbance of these proportions,
and were to be cured by correction of the disproportion by drugs,
these being used as they were themselves hot, cold, moist, or dry; to
add to whichever humours were defective.
departure from the better authorized text.
l. 27. _prone to more evills_; The reading 'mere evils' of several
MSS. , including _D_, _H49_, _Lec_, is tempting and _may_ be right.
In that case 'meere' has the now obsolete meaning of 'pure,
unadulterated', 'meere English', 'meere Irish', &c. in O. E. D. , or
more fully, 'absolute, entire, sheer, perfect, downright', as in
'Th'obstinacie, willfull disobedience, meere lienge and disceite of
the countrie gentlemen,' _Hist. MSS. Com. _ (1600), quoted in O. E. D.
;
'the mere perdition of the Turkish fleet,' Shakespeare, _Othello_,
II. ii. 3. Such a strong adjective would however come better after
'devills' in the next line. Placed here it disturbs the climax. What
Donne says here is that men in the country become beasts, and more
prone to evil than beasts because of their higher faculties:
If lecherous goats, if serpents envious
Cannot be damn'd; Alas; why should I bee?
Why should intent or reason, borne in mee,
Make sinnes, else equall, in mee more heinous?
_Holy Sonnets_, IX, p. 326.
And in this same letter, ll. 41-2, he develops the thought further.
PAGE =182=, ll. 59-62. _Only in this one thing, be no Galenist, &c. _
The Galenists perceived in the living body four humours; hot, cold,
moist, and dry, and held that in health these were present in fixed
proportions. Diseases were due to disturbance of these proportions,
and were to be cured by correction of the disproportion by drugs,
these being used as they were themselves hot, cold, moist, or dry; to
add to whichever humours were defective.
