_ 64);
and other examples as late as 1690.
and other examples as late as 1690.
John Donne
The quotation from Aelian confirms the _1633_ reading, 'none being so
large as shee,' which indeed is confirmed by the lines that follow.
The question of age is left open. The reference to' barrennesse' I do
not understand.
PAGE =94=, l. 47. _naturall lation. _ This, the reading of the
great majority of the MSS. , is obviously correct and explains the
vacillation of the editions. The word was rare but quite good. The
O. E. D. quotes: 'I mean lation or Local-motion from one place to
another. ' Fotherby (1619);
Make me the straight and oblique lines,
The motions, lations, and the signs.
(Herrick, _Hesper.
_ 64);
and other examples as late as 1690. The term was specially
astronomical, as here. The 'motion natural' of _1633_ is an unusual
order in Donne; the 'natural station' of _1635-69_ is the opposite
of motion. The first was doubtless an intentional alteration by the
editor, which the printer took in at the wrong place; the second a
misreading of 'lation'.
PAGE =95=. ELEGIE X.
The title of this Elegy, _The Dream_, was given it in _1635_, perhaps
wrongly. _S96_ seems to come nearer with _Picture_. The 'Image of
her whom I love', addressed in the first eight lines, seems to be a
picture. When that is gone and reason with it, fantasy and dreams come
to the lover's aid (ll. 9-20). But the tenor of the poem is somewhat
obscure; the picture is addressed in terms that could hardly be
strengthened if the lady herself were present.
l. 26. _Mad with much heart, &c. _ Aristotle made the heart the source
of all 'the actions of life and sense'.
