identical with _A18_, _N_,
_TC_, and underwent considerable correction as it passed through the
press.
_TC_, and underwent considerable correction as it passed through the
press.
John Donne
A vein of restless scepticism runs through the whole.
l. 280. _It's rais'd, to be the Raisers instrument and food. _ If with
_1650-69_, Chambers, and the Grolier Club editor, we alter the full
stop which separates this line from the last to a comma, 'It' must
mean the same as 'she', i. e. the fish. This is a harsh construction.
The line is rather to be taken as an aphorism. 'To be exalted is often
to become the instrument and prey of him who has exalted you. '
PAGE =307=, l. 296. _That many leagues at sea, now tir'd hee lyes. _
The reading of _G_ represents probably what Donne wrote. It is quite
clear that _1633_ was printed from a MS.
identical with _A18_, _N_,
_TC_, and underwent considerable correction as it passed through the
press. In no poem does the text of one copy vary so much from that
of another as in this. Now in this MS. a word is dropped. The editor
supplied the gap by inserting 'o're-past', which simply repeats 'flown
long and fast'. _G_ shows what the dropped word was. 'Many leagues at
sea' is an adverbial phrase qualifying 'now tir'd he lies'.
ll. 301-10. I owe the right punctuation of this stanza to the Grolier
Club edition and Grosart. The 'as' of l. 303 requires to be followed
by a comma. Missing this, Chambers closes the sentence at l. 307,
'head', leaving 'This fish would seem these' in the air. The words
'when all hopes fail' play with the idea of 'the hopeful Promontory',
or Cape of Good Hope.
PAGE =308=, ll.
