though such a life wee have
As but so many
mandrakes
on his grave.
John Donne
e._ _his heart_)
_Bir._ I would you heard it groan.
_Love's Labour's Lost._
In a metaphor where two objects are identified such a transference of
attributes is quite permissible. Moreover, although 'shriek' is the
more common word, 'groan' is used of the mandrake:
Would curses kill, as doth the mandrake's groan,
I would invent as bitter searching terms, &c.
_2 Hen. VI_, III. ii. 310.
In the _Elegie upon ... Prince Henry_ (p. 269, ll.
53-4) Donne writes:
though such a life wee have
As but so many
mandrakes
on his grave.
i.e. a life of groans.
PAGE =29=. A VALEDICTION: OF THE BOOKE.
l. 3. _Esloygne._ Chambers alters to 'eloign', but Donne's is a good
English form.
From worldly care himself he did esloyne.
Spenser, _F. Q._ I. iv. 20.
