_said History_ is a strange phrase, but it has the
support of all the editions which can be said to have any authority.
support of all the editions which can be said to have any authority.
John Donne
' _Sermons_ 80.
7.
72.
ll. 75-7. _Cloath'd in, &c. _ Chambers's arrangement of these lines is
ingenious but, I think, mistaken because it alters the emphasis of the
sentences. The stress is not laid by Donne on her purity, but on her
early death: 'She expir'd while she was still a virgin. She went away
before she was a woman. ' Line 76:
For marriage, though it doe not staine, doth dye.
is a sudden digression. Dryden filches these lines:
All white, a Virgin-Saint, she sought the skies
For Marriage, tho' it sullies not, it dies.
_The Monument of a Faire Maiden Lady. _
PAGE =248=, l. 83.
_said History_ is a strange phrase, but it has the
support of all the editions which can be said to have any authority.
l. 92. _and then inferre. _ Compare: 'That this honour might be
inferred on some one of the blood and race of their ancient king. '
Raleigh (O. E. D. ). Donne's sense of 'commit', 'entrust', is not far
from Raleigh's of 'confer', 'bestow', and both are natural extensions
of the common though now obsolete sense, 'bring on, occasion, cause':
Inferre faire Englands peace by this Alliance.
Shakespeare, _Rich. III_, IV. iv. 343.
l. 94.
72.
ll. 75-7. _Cloath'd in, &c. _ Chambers's arrangement of these lines is
ingenious but, I think, mistaken because it alters the emphasis of the
sentences. The stress is not laid by Donne on her purity, but on her
early death: 'She expir'd while she was still a virgin. She went away
before she was a woman. ' Line 76:
For marriage, though it doe not staine, doth dye.
is a sudden digression. Dryden filches these lines:
All white, a Virgin-Saint, she sought the skies
For Marriage, tho' it sullies not, it dies.
_The Monument of a Faire Maiden Lady. _
PAGE =248=, l. 83.
_said History_ is a strange phrase, but it has the
support of all the editions which can be said to have any authority.
l. 92. _and then inferre. _ Compare: 'That this honour might be
inferred on some one of the blood and race of their ancient king. '
Raleigh (O. E. D. ). Donne's sense of 'commit', 'entrust', is not far
from Raleigh's of 'confer', 'bestow', and both are natural extensions
of the common though now obsolete sense, 'bring on, occasion, cause':
Inferre faire Englands peace by this Alliance.
Shakespeare, _Rich. III_, IV. iv. 343.
l. 94.
