The stones are not only 'vile'; they are 'lying', inasmuch as they
pretend to be what they are not, as the 'saffron'd tinne' pretends to
be gold.
pretend to be what they are not, as the 'saffron'd tinne' pretends to
be gold.
John Donne
_Sanserra's starved men.
_ 'When I consider what God
did for Goshen in Egypt . . . How many Sancerraes he hath delivered from
famines, how many Genevas from plots and machinations. ' _Sermons. _
The Protestants in Sancerra were besieged by the Catholics for nine
months in 1573, and suffered extreme privations. Norton quotes Henri
Martin, _Histoire de France_, ix. 364: 'On se disputa les debris les
plus immondes de toute substance animale ou vegetale; on crea, pour
ainsi dire, des aliments monstrueux, impossibles. '
ll. 13-14. _And like vile lying stones in saffrond tinne,
Or warts, or wheales, they hang upon her skinne. _
Following the MSS. I have made 'lying' an epithet attached to 'stones'
and substituted 'they hang' for the superficially more grammatical 'it
hangs'. The readings of _1633_, 'vile stones lying' and 'it hangs',
seem to me just the kind of changes a hasty editor would make, the
kind of changes which characterize the Second Folio of Shakespeare.
The stones are not only 'vile'; they are 'lying', inasmuch as they
pretend to be what they are not, as the 'saffron'd tinne' pretends to
be gold.
l. 19. _Thy head_: i. e. 'the head of thy mistress. ' Donne continues
this construction in ll. 25, 32, 39, and I have restored it from the
later editions and MSS. at l. 34, 'thy gouty hand. '
l. 34. _thy gouty hand_: 'thy' is the reading of all the editions
except _1633_ and of all the MSS. except _JC_ and _S_. It is probably
right, corresponding to l. 19 'Thy head' and l.
did for Goshen in Egypt . . . How many Sancerraes he hath delivered from
famines, how many Genevas from plots and machinations. ' _Sermons. _
The Protestants in Sancerra were besieged by the Catholics for nine
months in 1573, and suffered extreme privations. Norton quotes Henri
Martin, _Histoire de France_, ix. 364: 'On se disputa les debris les
plus immondes de toute substance animale ou vegetale; on crea, pour
ainsi dire, des aliments monstrueux, impossibles. '
ll. 13-14. _And like vile lying stones in saffrond tinne,
Or warts, or wheales, they hang upon her skinne. _
Following the MSS. I have made 'lying' an epithet attached to 'stones'
and substituted 'they hang' for the superficially more grammatical 'it
hangs'. The readings of _1633_, 'vile stones lying' and 'it hangs',
seem to me just the kind of changes a hasty editor would make, the
kind of changes which characterize the Second Folio of Shakespeare.
The stones are not only 'vile'; they are 'lying', inasmuch as they
pretend to be what they are not, as the 'saffron'd tinne' pretends to
be gold.
l. 19. _Thy head_: i. e. 'the head of thy mistress. ' Donne continues
this construction in ll. 25, 32, 39, and I have restored it from the
later editions and MSS. at l. 34, 'thy gouty hand. '
l. 34. _thy gouty hand_: 'thy' is the reading of all the editions
except _1633_ and of all the MSS. except _JC_ and _S_. It is probably
right, corresponding to l. 19 'Thy head' and l.
