The last two lines are a comment on the whole incident, the making of
the will and the poet's inability to implement it.
the will and the poet's inability to implement it.
John Donne
14).
If inverted commas are to be used at all
it seems to me they would need to be extended to 'gone' (l. 12) or
to 'lie' (l. 14). As Donne is addressing the lady throughout it is
difficult to distinguish what he says to her now from what he said on
the occasion imagined.
But the point in which both Chambers and the Grolier Club editor seem
to me in error is in connecting l. 14, _When I had ripp'd, &c. _, with
what follows instead of with the immediately preceding line. There
is no justification for changing the comma after 'none' either to a
semicolon or a full stop. The meaning of ll. 13-14 is, 'But alas! when
I had ripp'd me and search'd where hearts did (i. e. used to) lie, I
could there find none. ' It is so that the Dutch translator understands
the lines:
Maer, oh, ick vond er geen, al scheurd ick mijn geraemt,
En socht door d'oude plaets die 't Hert is toegeraemt.
The last two lines are a comment on the whole incident, the making of
the will and the poet's inability to implement it.
l. 20. _It was intire to none_: i. e. 'It was tied to no one lover. '
The word 'entire' in this sense is still found on public-house signs,
and misled the American Pinkerton in Stevenson's _The Wrecker_.
Compare: 'But this evening I will spie upon the B[ishop] and give you
an account to-morrow morning of his disposition; when, if he cannot be
intire to you, since you are gone so farre downwards in your favours
to me, be pleased to pursue your humiliation so farre as to chuse your
day, and either to suffer the solitude of this place, or to change it,
by such company, as shall waite upon you. ' _Letters_, p. 315 (To . . .
Sir Robert Karre). This seems to mean, 'if the Bishop cannot fulfill,
be faithful to, his engagement to you, come and dine here. '
ll. 21-24.
it seems to me they would need to be extended to 'gone' (l. 12) or
to 'lie' (l. 14). As Donne is addressing the lady throughout it is
difficult to distinguish what he says to her now from what he said on
the occasion imagined.
But the point in which both Chambers and the Grolier Club editor seem
to me in error is in connecting l. 14, _When I had ripp'd, &c. _, with
what follows instead of with the immediately preceding line. There
is no justification for changing the comma after 'none' either to a
semicolon or a full stop. The meaning of ll. 13-14 is, 'But alas! when
I had ripp'd me and search'd where hearts did (i. e. used to) lie, I
could there find none. ' It is so that the Dutch translator understands
the lines:
Maer, oh, ick vond er geen, al scheurd ick mijn geraemt,
En socht door d'oude plaets die 't Hert is toegeraemt.
The last two lines are a comment on the whole incident, the making of
the will and the poet's inability to implement it.
l. 20. _It was intire to none_: i. e. 'It was tied to no one lover. '
The word 'entire' in this sense is still found on public-house signs,
and misled the American Pinkerton in Stevenson's _The Wrecker_.
Compare: 'But this evening I will spie upon the B[ishop] and give you
an account to-morrow morning of his disposition; when, if he cannot be
intire to you, since you are gone so farre downwards in your favours
to me, be pleased to pursue your humiliation so farre as to chuse your
day, and either to suffer the solitude of this place, or to change it,
by such company, as shall waite upon you. ' _Letters_, p. 315 (To . . .
Sir Robert Karre). This seems to mean, 'if the Bishop cannot fulfill,
be faithful to, his engagement to you, come and dine here. '
ll. 21-24.
