'
because they seem to me more certainly what Donne wrote.
because they seem to me more certainly what Donne wrote.
John Donne
THE BLOSSOME.
l. 10. _labour'st. _ The form with 't' occurs in most of the MSS. , and
't' is restored in _1635_. The 'labours' of _1633_ represents a
common dropping of the 't' for ease of pronunciation. See Franz,
_Shakespeare-Grammatik_, ? 152. It is colloquial, and I doubt if Donne
would have preserved it if he had printed the poem, supposing that he
wrote the word so, and not some copyist.
ll. 21-4. _You goe to friends, whose love and meanes present
Various content
To your eyes, eares, and tongue, and every part:
If then your body goe, what need you a heart? _
I have adopted the MS. readings 'tongue' and 'what need you a heart?
'
because they seem to me more certainly what Donne wrote. He may have
altered them, but so may an editor. 'Tongue' is more exactly parallel
to eyes and ears, and the whole talk is of organs. 'What need you a
heart? ' is more pointed. 'With these organs of sense, what need have
you of a heart? ' The idiom was not uncommon, the verb being used
impersonally. The O. E. D. gives among others:
What need us so many instances abroad.
_Andros Tracts_, 1691.
'What need your heart go' is of course also idiomatic. The latest
example the O. E. D.
l. 10. _labour'st. _ The form with 't' occurs in most of the MSS. , and
't' is restored in _1635_. The 'labours' of _1633_ represents a
common dropping of the 't' for ease of pronunciation. See Franz,
_Shakespeare-Grammatik_, ? 152. It is colloquial, and I doubt if Donne
would have preserved it if he had printed the poem, supposing that he
wrote the word so, and not some copyist.
ll. 21-4. _You goe to friends, whose love and meanes present
Various content
To your eyes, eares, and tongue, and every part:
If then your body goe, what need you a heart? _
I have adopted the MS. readings 'tongue' and 'what need you a heart?
'
because they seem to me more certainly what Donne wrote. He may have
altered them, but so may an editor. 'Tongue' is more exactly parallel
to eyes and ears, and the whole talk is of organs. 'What need you a
heart? ' is more pointed. 'With these organs of sense, what need have
you of a heart? ' The idiom was not uncommon, the verb being used
impersonally. The O. E. D. gives among others:
What need us so many instances abroad.
_Andros Tracts_, 1691.
'What need your heart go' is of course also idiomatic. The latest
example the O. E. D.
