According to Donne's medical science the scorpion (probably its flesh)
was an antidote to its own poison: 'I have as many Antidotes as the
Devill hath poisons, I have as much mercy as the Devill hath malice;
There must be scorpions in the world; _but the
Scorpion
shall cure the
Scorpion_; there must be tentations; but tentations shall adde to mine
and to thy glory, and _Eripiam_, I will deliver thee.
John Donne
Ovid, _Pont._ ii. 7. 64.
l. 17. _Can dung and garlike, &c._ This is the text of the 1633
edition made consistent with itself, and it has the support of several
MSS. Clearly if we are to read 'or' in one line we must do so in both,
and adopt the _1635-69_ text. It is tempting at first sight to do so,
but I believe the MSS. are right. What Donne means is, 'Can we procure
a perfume, or a medicine, by blending opposite stenches or poisons?'
This is his expansion of the question, 'Shall cities, built of
both extremes, be chosen?' The change to 'or' obscures the exact
metaphysical point. It would be an improvement perhaps to bracket the
lines as parenthetical.
According to Donne's medical science the scorpion (probably its flesh)
was an antidote to its own poison: 'I have as many Antidotes as the
Devill hath poisons, I have as much mercy as the Devill hath malice;
There must be scorpions in the world; _but the
Scorpion
shall cure the
Scorpion_; there must be tentations; but tentations shall adde to mine
and to thy glory, and _Eripiam_, I will deliver thee.
' _Sermons_ 80.
52. 527. Obviously Donne could not ask in surprise, 'Can a Scorpion or
Torpedo cure a man?' Each can; it is their combination he deprecates.
In _Ignatius his Conclave_ he writes, 'and two Poysons mingled might
do no harme.'
In speaking of scent made from dung Donne has probably the statement
of Paracelsus in his mind to which Sir Thomas Browne also refers: 'And
yet if, as Paracelsus encourageth, Ordure makes the best Musk, and
from the most fetid substances may be drawn the most odoriferous
Essences; all that had not Vespasian's nose, might boldly swear, here
was a subject fit for such extractions.' _Pseudodoxia Epidemica_, iii.
26.
PAGE =181=, ll. 19-20. _Cities are worst of all three; of all three
(O knottie riddle) each is worst equally._
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:
