Discussion Groups / English Usage / May 2009

Hello:

Several questions, please:

1.
"To be to more than one a bed"
is this about bawdy women come in pairs to man's bed?

2.
What "thereby" are we dealing with here?
"and I
       A something else [1] thereby"
Is it "near that," "beside that?"
That seems Scotts:
----
thereby

chiefly Scotland : beside that : near by : about that : BESIDE,
THEREABOUTS
M-W Unabridged
----

3. Does
"If this fall in a time, or land,"
mean
"Should this happen in a time ..."
?

4.
"I would have that age by this paper [2] taught"
Talking about teaching the _people_ of that imaginary age?

5.
"Yet knew not what we loved,"
Were they too young to appreciate what they had?

6.
"Perchance might kiss,[3] but not between those meals ;[4]"
What are the meals? Instances of heavy kissing?
Sex is probably out of discussion, see Norton [5].

7.
"Difference of sex we never knew"
is shown in Norton as:
"Difference of sex no more we knew"
Does this mean a sex-less love, asexual love?
Or simply "pure?"

-----
WHEN my grave is broke up again
            Some second guest to entertain,[7]
            —For graves have learn'd that woman-head,[8]
            To be to more than one a bed—
                And he that digs it, spies
A bracelet of bright hair about the bone,
                Will he not let us alone,
And think that there a loving couple lies,
Who thought that this device might be some way
To make their souls at the last busy day [9]
Meet at this grave, and make a little stay?

            If this fall in a time, or land,
            Where mass-devotion doth command,
            Then he that digs us up will bring
            Us to the bishop or the king,
                To make us relics ; then
Thou shalt be a Mary Magdalen, and I
                A something else [1] thereby ;
All women shall adore us, and some men.
And, since at such time miracles are sought,
I would have that age by this paper [2] taught
What miracles we harmless lovers wrought.

            First we loved well and faithfully,
            Yet knew not what we loved, nor why ;
            Difference of sex we never knew,
            No more than guardian angels do ;
                Coming and going we
Perchance might kiss,[3] but not between those meals ;[4]
                Our hands ne'er touch'd the seals,
Which nature, injured by late law,[5] sets free.
These miracles we did ; but now alas !
All measure, and all language, I should pass,
Should I tell what a miracle she was.

John Donne: The Relic, p. 110
http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/donne/relic.htm
------
Norton notes:
[7] Reusing burial ground was common.
[8] Womanhood, but with a bawdy analogue to maidenhead.
[9] At the Ressurection
[1] Some other relic, or perhaps a bone of Christ, who some believe was
linked to mary Magdalen.
[2] The poem
[3] Kiss in salutation or in parting
[4] These kisses are the food of the soul.
[5] We never had physical relations, which Nature allows to all other
species, but which mankind has made ilicit. In this context, _seals_ mai
 refer to the maidenhead.