The copyist seems to have written on without paying
any attention to the sense of what he set down.
any attention to the sense of what he set down.
John Donne
A specific sense given to the word in older Chemistry is a definite
alcoholic tincture obtained by digestion at a gentle heat. This is
probably the 'soule of simples' (p. 186, l. 26), unless that also is
the quintessence in Paracelsus's full sense of the word.
ll. 17-20. _As, in the firmament,
Starres by the Sunne are not inlarg'd, but showne.
Gentle love deeds, as blossomes on a bough,
From loves awakened root do bud out now_.
_P_ reads here:
As in the firmament
Starres by the sunne are not enlarg'd but showne
Greater; Loves deeds, &c.
This certainly makes the verse clearer. As it stands l. 18 is
rather an enigma. The stars are not revealed by the sun, but hidden.
Grosart's note is equally enigmatical: 'a curious phrase meaning that
the stars that show in daylight are not enlarged, but showne to be
brighter than their invisible neighbours, and to be comparatively
brighter than they appear to be when all are seen together in
the darkness of the night. ' _P_ is so carelessly written that an
occasional good reading may be an old one because there is no evidence
of any editing.
The copyist seems to have written on without paying
any attention to the sense of what he set down. Still, 'Gentle' is the
reading of all the other MSS. and editions, and I do not think it is
necessary or desirable to change it. But _P_'s emendation shows what
Donne meant. By 'showne' he does not mean 'revealed'--an adjectival
predicate 'larger' or 'greater' must be supplied from the verb
'enlarg'd'. 'The stars at sunrise are not really made larger, but they
are made to seem larger. ' It is a characteristically elliptical and
careless wording of a characteristically acute and vivid image. Mr.
Wells has used the same phenomenon with effect:
'He peered upwards. "Look! " he said.
"What? " I asked.
"In the sky. Already. On the blackness--a little touch of blue.
