The later punctuation which Chambers has adopted and modernized, is
not found to be an improvement if scrutinized.
not found to be an improvement if scrutinized.
John Donne
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:
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?
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:
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?
