Following
_RP31_ and also Jonson's _Underwoods_ I have taken
'at once' as going with 'Both hot and cold', not with 'make life, and
death' as in _1633-69_.
'at once' as going with 'Both hot and cold', not with 'make life, and
death' as in _1633-69_.
John Donne
I do not understand the 'kinsmen' of the editions.
By 'protections' is meant 'exemptions from suits in law', especially
suits for debt. The London tradesmen were much cheated by the
protections granted to the servants and followers of members of
Parliament.
l. 65. _found nothing but a Rope. _ I cannot identify this Rope. In the
_Aulularia_ of Plautus, when Euclio finds his treasure gone he laments
in the usual manner. At l. 721 he says, 'Heu me miserum, misere perii,
male perditu', _pessume ornatus eo_. ' The last words may have been
taken as meaning 'I have the rope round my neck'.
PAGE =108=. ELEGIE XV.
l. 12.
Following _RP31_ and also Jonson's _Underwoods_ I have taken
'at once' as going with 'Both hot and cold', not with 'make life, and
death' as in _1633-69_. This is one of the poems which _1633_ derived
from some other source than _D_, _H49_, _Lec_.
ll. 16-18 (_all sweeter . . . the rest_) Chambers has overlooked
altogether the _1633_ reading 'sweeter'. He prints 'sweeten'd'
from _1635-69_. It is clear from the MSS. that this is an editor's
amendment due to Donne's 'all sweeter' suggesting, perhaps
intentionally, 'all the sweeter'. By dropping the bracket Chambers
has left at least ambiguous the construction of 17-18: _And the divine
impression of stolne kisses That sealed the rest. _ Does this, as in
_1633_, belong to the parenthesis, or is 'the divine impression' to be
taken with 'so many accents sweet, so many sighes' and 'so many oathes
and teares' as part subject to 'should now prove empty blisses'. I
prefer the _1633_ arrangement, which has the support of the MSS. ,
though the punctuation of these is apt to be careless. The accents,
sighs, oaths, and tears were all made sweeter by having been stolen
with fear and trembling. This is how the Grolier Club editor takes it;
Grosart and Chambers prefer to follow _1635-69_.
By 'protections' is meant 'exemptions from suits in law', especially
suits for debt. The London tradesmen were much cheated by the
protections granted to the servants and followers of members of
Parliament.
l. 65. _found nothing but a Rope. _ I cannot identify this Rope. In the
_Aulularia_ of Plautus, when Euclio finds his treasure gone he laments
in the usual manner. At l. 721 he says, 'Heu me miserum, misere perii,
male perditu', _pessume ornatus eo_. ' The last words may have been
taken as meaning 'I have the rope round my neck'.
PAGE =108=. ELEGIE XV.
l. 12.
Following _RP31_ and also Jonson's _Underwoods_ I have taken
'at once' as going with 'Both hot and cold', not with 'make life, and
death' as in _1633-69_. This is one of the poems which _1633_ derived
from some other source than _D_, _H49_, _Lec_.
ll. 16-18 (_all sweeter . . . the rest_) Chambers has overlooked
altogether the _1633_ reading 'sweeter'. He prints 'sweeten'd'
from _1635-69_. It is clear from the MSS. that this is an editor's
amendment due to Donne's 'all sweeter' suggesting, perhaps
intentionally, 'all the sweeter'. By dropping the bracket Chambers
has left at least ambiguous the construction of 17-18: _And the divine
impression of stolne kisses That sealed the rest. _ Does this, as in
_1633_, belong to the parenthesis, or is 'the divine impression' to be
taken with 'so many accents sweet, so many sighes' and 'so many oathes
and teares' as part subject to 'should now prove empty blisses'. I
prefer the _1633_ arrangement, which has the support of the MSS. ,
though the punctuation of these is apt to be careless. The accents,
sighs, oaths, and tears were all made sweeter by having been stolen
with fear and trembling. This is how the Grolier Club editor takes it;
Grosart and Chambers prefer to follow _1635-69_.
