Modern editors
separate
'thorny' and 'hairy' by a
comma.
comma.
John Donne
22.
_As Down, as Stars, &c.
_ 'Down' is probably correct, but the
'Dowves' (i. e. doves) of _P_ gives the plural as in the other
nouns, and a closer parallel in poetic vividness. We get a series of
pictures--doves, stars, cedars, lilies. The meaning conveyed would be
the same:
this hand
As soft as doves-downe, and as white as it.
_Wint. Tale_, IV. iv. 374.
But of course swan's down is also celebrated:
Heaven with sweet repose doth crowne
Each vertue softer than the swan's fam'd downe.
Habington, _Castara_.
PAGE =125=, l. 33.
Modern editors separate 'thorny' and 'hairy' by a
comma. They should rather be connected by a hyphen as in _TCD_.
l. 40. _And are, as theeves trac'd, which rob when it snows. _ This is
doubtless the source of Dryden's figurative description of Jonson's
thefts from the Ancients: 'You track him everywhere in their snow. '
_Essay of Dramatic Poesy_.
EPITHALAMIONS.
PAGE =127=. The dates of the two chief Marriage Songs are: the
Princess Elizabeth, Feb. 14, 1613; the Earl of Somerset, Dec. 26,
1613. The third is an earlier piece of work, dating from the years
when Donne was a student at Lincoln's Inn. It is found in _W_,
following the _Satyres_ and _Elegies_ and preceding the _Letters_,
being probably the only one written when the collection in the first
part of that MS. was made.
While quite himself in his treatment of the theme of this kind of
poem, Donne comes in it nearer to Spenser than in any other kind.
'Dowves' (i. e. doves) of _P_ gives the plural as in the other
nouns, and a closer parallel in poetic vividness. We get a series of
pictures--doves, stars, cedars, lilies. The meaning conveyed would be
the same:
this hand
As soft as doves-downe, and as white as it.
_Wint. Tale_, IV. iv. 374.
But of course swan's down is also celebrated:
Heaven with sweet repose doth crowne
Each vertue softer than the swan's fam'd downe.
Habington, _Castara_.
PAGE =125=, l. 33.
Modern editors separate 'thorny' and 'hairy' by a
comma. They should rather be connected by a hyphen as in _TCD_.
l. 40. _And are, as theeves trac'd, which rob when it snows. _ This is
doubtless the source of Dryden's figurative description of Jonson's
thefts from the Ancients: 'You track him everywhere in their snow. '
_Essay of Dramatic Poesy_.
EPITHALAMIONS.
PAGE =127=. The dates of the two chief Marriage Songs are: the
Princess Elizabeth, Feb. 14, 1613; the Earl of Somerset, Dec. 26,
1613. The third is an earlier piece of work, dating from the years
when Donne was a student at Lincoln's Inn. It is found in _W_,
following the _Satyres_ and _Elegies_ and preceding the _Letters_,
being probably the only one written when the collection in the first
part of that MS. was made.
While quite himself in his treatment of the theme of this kind of
poem, Donne comes in it nearer to Spenser than in any other kind.
