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Post Info TOPIC: Elegy 19
Carmela McIntire

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Elegy 19
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Hello all,


I recently came upon several lines of poetry attributed to Prudentius Silentarius which are very close to the lines in Donne's Elegy 19 beginning "Full nakedness! All joys are due to thee!"


I still have to find source of the Prudentius passage; but in looking at the editions of Donne's poetry available to me (and someone else checked the Variorum for me, also--I don't have access to it), there's no mention of Donne's lines having a source or analogue.


?


Many thanks.


Carmela McIntire


English


Florida International University


Miami



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greg kneidel

Date:
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perhaps an edition of the Greek Anthology (or a sixteenth century latin translation of it)

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greg kneidel

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Thank you! Semester business has prevented my looking for it so far, but I"ll get there.


Carmela McI



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Vladimir Makarov

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Hello Carmela,


these lines are possibly what you are looking for. They are by Paulus Silentiarus and indeed come from the Greek Anthology (the Loeb edition, translated by W.R. Paton):


BOOK V.  252.— PAULUS SILENTIARIUS


let us throw off these cloaks, my pretty one, and lie naked, knotted in each other's embrace. Let nothing be between us; even that thin tissue you wear seems thick to me as the wall of Babylon. Let our breasts and our lips be linked ; the rest must be veiled in silence. I hate a babbling tongue.


online at: http://www.ancientlibrary.com/greek-anthology/0272.html


best wishes,


Vladimir Makarov
Kazan University
Russia



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