Captain Shirley
Harris first pointed out, in _Notes and Queries_, that 'Mucheron'
must be correct, for Donne has in view, as so often elsewhere, the
threefold
division
of the soul--vegetal, sensitive, rational.
John Donne
.
Si tamen Angeli haberent materiam nec sic possent esse plures Angeli
unius speciei. Sic enim opporteret quod principium distinctionis unius
ab alio esset materia, non quidem secundum divisionem quantitatis, cum
sint incorporei, sed secundum diversitatem potentiarum: quae quidem
diversitas materiae causat diversitatem non solum speciei sed generis.
Aquinas, _Summa_ I. l. 4.
PAGE =293=. INFINITATI SACRUM, _&c._
PAGE =294=, l. 11. _a Mucheron_: i.e. a mushroom, here equivalent to
a fungus. Chambers adopts without note the reading of the later
editions, 'Maceron', but spells it 'Macaron'. Grosart prints
'Macheron', taking 'Mucheron' as a mis-spelling.
Captain Shirley
Harris first pointed out, in _Notes and Queries_, that 'Mucheron'
must be correct, for Donne has in view, as so often elsewhere, the
threefold
division
of the soul--vegetal, sensitive, rational.
Captain
Harris quoted the very apt parallel from Burton, where, speaking
of metempsychosis, he says: 'Lucian's cock was first Euphorbus, a
captain:
Ille ego (nam memini Troiani tempore belli)
Panthoides Euphorbus eram,
a horse, a man, a spunge.' _Anatomy of Melancholy_, Part 1, Sect. 1,
Mem. 2, Subs. 10. Donne's order is, a man, a horse, a fungus. But
to Burton a sponge was a fungus. The word fungus is cognate with or
derived from the Greek [Greek: spongos].
As for the form 'mucheron' (n. b. 'mushrome' in _G_) the O.E.D.
gives it among different spellings but cites no example of this exact
spelling. From the _Promptorium Parvulorum_ it quotes, 'Muscheron,
toodys hatte, _boletus_, _fungus_.
