PAGE =422=. ELEGIE.

ll. 5-6. _denounce ... pronounce._ The reading of the MSS. seems to

me plainly the correct one. 'In others, terror, anguish and grief

announce the approach of death. Her courage, ease and joy in dying

pronounce the happiness of her state.' The reading of the printed

texts is due to the error by which _1635_ and _1639_ took 'comming'

as an epithet to 'terror' as 'happy' is to 'state'. Some MSS. read

'terrors' and 'joyes'.

l. 22. _Their spoyles, &c._ I have adopted the MS. reading here,

though with some hesitation, because (1) it is the more difficult

reading: 'Soules to thy conquest beare' seems more like a conjectural

emendation than the other reading, (2) The construction of the line

in the printed texts is harsh--one does not bear anything 'to a

conquest', (3) the meaning suits the context better. It is not souls

that are spoken of, but bodies. The bodies of the wicked become the

spoil of death, trophies of his victory over Adam; not so those of the

good, which shall rise again. See 1 Cor. xv. 54-5.

The Poems of John Donne, Volume 2 (of 2) Edited from the Old Editions and Numerous Manuscripts · 第 267 / 290 题