' The
interjected
'O knottie riddle' does not mean, 'Who is
to say which is the worst?
to say which is the worst?
John Donne
_
This is the punctuation of _1633_ and of _D_, _H49_, _Lec_, and _W_.
The later punctuation which Chambers has adopted and modernized, is
not found to be an improvement if scrutinized. He reads:
Cities are worst of all three; of all three?
O knotty riddle! each is worst equally.
The mark of interrogation after 'three' would be justifiable only if
the poet were going to expatiate upon the badness of cities. 'Of all
three? 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.
This is the punctuation of _1633_ and of _D_, _H49_, _Lec_, and _W_.
The later punctuation which Chambers has adopted and modernized, is
not found to be an improvement if scrutinized. He reads:
Cities are worst of all three; of all three?
O knotty riddle! each is worst equally.
The mark of interrogation after 'three' would be justifiable only if
the poet were going to expatiate upon the badness of cities. 'Of all
three? 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.
