Jessop, 1855): 'O Man, which art
said to be the epilogue, and compendium of all this world, and the
Hymen and matrimonial knot of eternal and mortal things .
said to be the epilogue, and compendium of all this world, and the
Hymen and matrimonial knot of eternal and mortal things .
John Donne
e.
the other
senses, with harsh (the ear), hard (touch), sour (the taste), and
stinking (the sense of smell). The asceticism of Donne in his later
life is strikingly evidenced in such lines as these.
l. 48. I have made an emendation here which seems to me to combine
happily the text of _1633_ and that of the later editions. It seems
to me that _1633_ has dropped 'all', _1635-69_ have dropped 'call'. I
thought the line as I give it was in _O'F_, but found on inquiry I had
misread the collation. I should withdraw it, but cannot find it in my
heart to do so.
l. 52. _Points downewards. _ I think the MS. reading is probably right,
because (1) 'Pants' is the same as 'hath palpitation'; (2) Donne
alludes to the anatomy of the heart, in the same terms, in the
_Essayes in Divinity_, p. 74 (ed.
Jessop, 1855): 'O Man, which art
said to be the epilogue, and compendium of all this world, and the
Hymen and matrimonial knot of eternal and mortal things . . . and was
made by God's hands, not His commandment; and hast thy head erected to
heaven, and all others to the centre, that yet only thy heart of all
others points downward, and only trembles. '
The reference in each case is to the anatomy of the day: 'The figure
of it, as Hippocrates saith in his Booke _de Corde_ is Pyramidall, or
rather turbinated and somewhat answering to the proportion of a Pine
Apple, because a man is broad and short chested. For the Basis above
is large and circular but not exactly round, and after it by degrees
endeth in a cone or dull and blunt round point . . . His lower part is
called the Vertex or top, _Mucro_ or point, the Cone, the heighth of
the heart. Hippocrates calleth it the taile which Galen saith . . . is
the basest part, as the Basis is the noblest. ' Helkiah Crooke: [Greek:
MIKROKOSMOGR? PHI? ], _A Description of the Body of Man, &c.
senses, with harsh (the ear), hard (touch), sour (the taste), and
stinking (the sense of smell). The asceticism of Donne in his later
life is strikingly evidenced in such lines as these.
l. 48. I have made an emendation here which seems to me to combine
happily the text of _1633_ and that of the later editions. It seems
to me that _1633_ has dropped 'all', _1635-69_ have dropped 'call'. I
thought the line as I give it was in _O'F_, but found on inquiry I had
misread the collation. I should withdraw it, but cannot find it in my
heart to do so.
l. 52. _Points downewards. _ I think the MS. reading is probably right,
because (1) 'Pants' is the same as 'hath palpitation'; (2) Donne
alludes to the anatomy of the heart, in the same terms, in the
_Essayes in Divinity_, p. 74 (ed.
Jessop, 1855): 'O Man, which art
said to be the epilogue, and compendium of all this world, and the
Hymen and matrimonial knot of eternal and mortal things . . . and was
made by God's hands, not His commandment; and hast thy head erected to
heaven, and all others to the centre, that yet only thy heart of all
others points downward, and only trembles. '
The reference in each case is to the anatomy of the day: 'The figure
of it, as Hippocrates saith in his Booke _de Corde_ is Pyramidall, or
rather turbinated and somewhat answering to the proportion of a Pine
Apple, because a man is broad and short chested. For the Basis above
is large and circular but not exactly round, and after it by degrees
endeth in a cone or dull and blunt round point . . . His lower part is
called the Vertex or top, _Mucro_ or point, the Cone, the heighth of
the heart. Hippocrates calleth it the taile which Galen saith . . . is
the basest part, as the Basis is the noblest. ' Helkiah Crooke: [Greek:
MIKROKOSMOGR? PHI? ], _A Description of the Body of Man, &c.
