I don't want anyone to think I have any peculiar interest - it's just that I
spent too much of my working life in hotel rooms, where the only reading
matter was a local telephone directory and a Gideon Bible in the local
language. So after enjoying the phone book, I turned to the NT.
So, regarding Revelations I.18 - the problem is that it should not be
separated from Revelations I.17 - in my opinion.
A literal translation of the Greek would be:
(...17) and he put his right hand on me saying to me do not fear I am the
first and the last (18) and the living one and I became dead and behold I am
living for ever and ever amen
The French and German (Gideon) versions follow the (supposedly original)
Greek text quite faithfully (which the Geneva version does not), but their
punctuation differs from the KJV. They have, in effect:
(...17) He put his right hand on me, saying to me: Do not fear! I am the
first and the last, (18) and the living One. I became dead; and behold, I
am living for ever and ever.
So, there's really no reason to suppose that Spenser intended an inversion.
In F.Q. ii. xi. 44 he has "dead-living" - whereas the modern "horror movie"
enthusiast would be rather more at home with the "living dead"!
There's a poem by Ronsard, ending with:
.......
Pour obseques reçoy mes larmes et mes pleurs,
Ce vase pleine de laict, ce panier plein de fleurs,
Afin que vif et mort ton corps ne soit que roses.
.......
I'm afraid I couldn't find which book it comes from. Anyway, it only seems
to make sense to say "...dead as living, her body is among roses".
Andy
> In I.i. of the FQ, the narrator describes Red Crosse's relationship with
> Christ thus: "And dead as living ever him adored," and Anne
> Prescott & Hugh
> McLean in their edition (and Anne Prescott in personal correspondence)
> point out that the line inverts Revelations I.18: I am he that
> liveth, and
> was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore" (KJV); "And [I] am alive,
> but I was dead: and behold, I am alive for evermore" (Geneva). My
> question
> is, how common was the locution "dead as living"? I am asking because I
> have found another text that uses this locution, and am wondering if the
> author is alluding to the FQ.
>
> Many thanks in advance,
>
> Peter C. Herman
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