PAGE =294=, l. 11. _a Mucheron_: i.e. a mushroom, here equivalent to
a fungus. Chambers adopts without note the reading of the later
editions, 'Maceron', but spells it 'Macaron'. Grosart prints
'Macheron', taking 'Mucheron' as a mis-spelling. Captain Shirley
Harris first pointed out, in _Notes and Queries_, that 'Mucheron'
must be correct, for Donne has in view, as so often elsewhere, the
threefold division of the soul--vegetal, sensitive, rational. Captain
Harris quoted the very apt parallel from Burton, where, speaking
of metempsychosis, he says: 'Lucian's cock was first Euphorbus, a
captain:
Ille ego (nam memini Troiani tempore belli)
Panthoides Euphorbus eram,
a horse, a man, a spunge.' _Anatomy of Melancholy_, Part 1, Sect. 1,
Mem. 2, Subs. 10. Donne's order is, a man, a horse, a fungus. But
to Burton a sponge was a fungus. The word fungus is cognate with or
derived from the Greek [Greek: spongos].
As for the form 'mucheron' (n. b. 'mushrome' in _G_) the O.E.D.
gives it among different spellings but cites no example of this exact
spelling. From the _Promptorium Parvulorum_ it quotes, 'Muscheron,
toodys hatte, _boletus_, _fungus_.' Captain Harris has supplied me
with the following delightful instance of the word in use as late as
1808. It is from a catalogue of Maggs Bros. (No. 263, 1910):
'THE DISAPPOINTED KING OF SPAIN, or the downfall of the Mucheron King
Joe Bonaparte, late Pettifogging Attorney's Clerk. Between two stools
the Breech comes to the Ground.'
The caricature is etched by G. Cruikshank and is dated 1808.
The 'Maceron' which was inserted in _1635_ is not a misprint, but a
pseudo-correction by some one who did not recognize 'mucheron' and
knew that Donne had elsewhere used 'maceron' for a fop or puppy (see
p. 163, l. 117).
'Mushrome', the spelling of the word in _G_, is found also in the
_Sermons_ (80. 73. 748).
l. 22. _which Eve eate_: 'eate' is of course the past tense, and
should be 'ate' in modernized editions, not 'eat' as in Chambers's and
the Grolier Club editions.