_Like a wedge in a block, wring to the barre,
Bearing-like Asses; and more shamelesse farre, &c.
Bearing-like Asses; and more shamelesse farre, &c.
John Donne
_
The unpunctuated 'for meere gaine bold soule repute' of _1633-69_ and
most MSS. has caused considerable trouble to the editors and copyists.
One way out of the difficulty, 'bold souls repute,' appears in
Chambers' edition as an emendation, and before that in Tonson's
edition (1719), whence it was copied by all the editions to Chalmers'
(1810). Lowell's conjecture, 'hold soules repute,' had been anticipated
in some MSS. There is no real difficulty. I had comma'd the words
'bold soule' before I examined _Q_, which places them in brackets,
a common means in old books of indicating an apostrophe. The 'bold
soule' addressed, and invoked to esteem such worthless people
aright, is the 'Sir' (whoever that may be) to whom the whole poem is
addressed. A note in _HN_ prefixed to this poem says that it is taken
from 'C. B. 's copy', i. e. Christopher Brooke's. It is quite possible
that this _Satyre_, like _The Storme_, was addressed to him.
ll. 71-4.
_Like a wedge in a block, wring to the barre,
Bearing-like Asses; and more shamelesse farre, &c. _
These lines are printed as in _1633_, except that the comma after
'Asses' is raised to a semicolon, and that I have put a hyphen between
'Bearing' and 'like'. The lines are difficult and have greatly puzzled
editors. Grosart prints from _H51_ and reads 'wringd', which, though
an admissible form of the past-participle, makes no sense here. The
Grolier Club editor prints:
Like a wedge in a block, wring to the bar,
Bearing like asses, and more shameless far
Than carted whores; lie to the grave judge; for . . .
Chambers adopts much the same scheme:
Like a wedge in a block, wring to the bar,
Bearing like asses, and more shameless far
Than carted whores; lie to the grave judge, for . . .
By retaining the comma after 'bar' in a modernized text with modern
punctuation these editors leave it doubtful whether they do or do not
consider that 'asses' is the object to 'wring'. Further, they connect
'and more shameless far than carted whores' closely with 'asses',
separating it by a semicolon from 'lie to the grave judge'. I take it
that 'more shameless far' is regarded by these editors as a qualifying
adjunct to 'asses'. This is surely wrong. The subject of the
long sentence is 'He' (l. 65), and the infinitives throughout are
complements to 'must': 'He must walk .
The unpunctuated 'for meere gaine bold soule repute' of _1633-69_ and
most MSS. has caused considerable trouble to the editors and copyists.
One way out of the difficulty, 'bold souls repute,' appears in
Chambers' edition as an emendation, and before that in Tonson's
edition (1719), whence it was copied by all the editions to Chalmers'
(1810). Lowell's conjecture, 'hold soules repute,' had been anticipated
in some MSS. There is no real difficulty. I had comma'd the words
'bold soule' before I examined _Q_, which places them in brackets,
a common means in old books of indicating an apostrophe. The 'bold
soule' addressed, and invoked to esteem such worthless people
aright, is the 'Sir' (whoever that may be) to whom the whole poem is
addressed. A note in _HN_ prefixed to this poem says that it is taken
from 'C. B. 's copy', i. e. Christopher Brooke's. It is quite possible
that this _Satyre_, like _The Storme_, was addressed to him.
ll. 71-4.
_Like a wedge in a block, wring to the barre,
Bearing-like Asses; and more shamelesse farre, &c. _
These lines are printed as in _1633_, except that the comma after
'Asses' is raised to a semicolon, and that I have put a hyphen between
'Bearing' and 'like'. The lines are difficult and have greatly puzzled
editors. Grosart prints from _H51_ and reads 'wringd', which, though
an admissible form of the past-participle, makes no sense here. The
Grolier Club editor prints:
Like a wedge in a block, wring to the bar,
Bearing like asses, and more shameless far
Than carted whores; lie to the grave judge; for . . .
Chambers adopts much the same scheme:
Like a wedge in a block, wring to the bar,
Bearing like asses, and more shameless far
Than carted whores; lie to the grave judge, for . . .
By retaining the comma after 'bar' in a modernized text with modern
punctuation these editors leave it doubtful whether they do or do not
consider that 'asses' is the object to 'wring'. Further, they connect
'and more shameless far than carted whores' closely with 'asses',
separating it by a semicolon from 'lie to the grave judge'. I take it
that 'more shameless far' is regarded by these editors as a qualifying
adjunct to 'asses'. This is surely wrong. The subject of the
long sentence is 'He' (l. 65), and the infinitives throughout are
complements to 'must': 'He must walk .
