_ The evidence for this reading
is so overwhelming that it is impossible to reject it.
is so overwhelming that it is impossible to reject it.
John Donne
that is saying very little, &c.
, &c.
' But this is not the tenor
of the passage. From one thought he is led to another. 'Cities are
worst of all three (i. e. Court, City, Country). Nay, each is equally
the worst. ' The interjected 'O knottie riddle' does not mean, 'Who is
to say which is the worst? ' but 'How can it come that each is worst?
This is a riddle! ' Donne here echoes Bacon:
And where's the citty from foul vice so free
But may be term'd the worst of all the three?
ll. 25-6. _The country is a desert, &c.
_ The evidence for this reading
is so overwhelming that it is impossible to reject it. I have modified
the punctuation to bring out more clearly what I take it to mean. 'The
country is a desert where no goodness is native, and therefore rightly
understood. Goodness in the country is like a foreign language, a
faculty not born with us, but acquired with pain, and never thoroughly
understood and mastered. ' Only Dr. Johnson could stigmatize in
adequate terms so harsh a construction, but the _1635-54_ emendation
is not less obscure. Does it mean that any good which comes there
quits it with all speed, while that which is native and must stay is
not understood? This is not a lucid or just enough thought to warrant
departure from the better authorized text.
l. 27. _prone to more evills_; The reading 'mere evils' of several
MSS. , including _D_, _H49_, _Lec_, is tempting and _may_ be right.
In that case 'meere' has the now obsolete meaning of 'pure,
unadulterated', 'meere English', 'meere Irish', &c. in O. E. D.
of the passage. From one thought he is led to another. 'Cities are
worst of all three (i. e. Court, City, Country). Nay, each is equally
the worst. ' The interjected 'O knottie riddle' does not mean, 'Who is
to say which is the worst? ' but 'How can it come that each is worst?
This is a riddle! ' Donne here echoes Bacon:
And where's the citty from foul vice so free
But may be term'd the worst of all the three?
ll. 25-6. _The country is a desert, &c.
_ The evidence for this reading
is so overwhelming that it is impossible to reject it. I have modified
the punctuation to bring out more clearly what I take it to mean. 'The
country is a desert where no goodness is native, and therefore rightly
understood. Goodness in the country is like a foreign language, a
faculty not born with us, but acquired with pain, and never thoroughly
understood and mastered. ' Only Dr. Johnson could stigmatize in
adequate terms so harsh a construction, but the _1635-54_ emendation
is not less obscure. Does it mean that any good which comes there
quits it with all speed, while that which is native and must stay is
not understood? This is not a lucid or just enough thought to warrant
departure from the better authorized text.
l. 27. _prone to more evills_; The reading 'mere evils' of several
MSS. , including _D_, _H49_, _Lec_, is tempting and _may_ be right.
In that case 'meere' has the now obsolete meaning of 'pure,
unadulterated', 'meere English', 'meere Irish', &c. in O. E. D.
