I haven't a whole lot of knowledge to communicate here, and I don't think
this is really an answer (here in Manhattan I can't see either river,
overlooking as I do Third Avenue, which does indeed calm down at night),
but would
the closeness to the sea and the role of the tides play a role? My bet,
for what it's worth, is that on most days steady heat or steady coolness
(i.e., midday or midnight)
would make for some degree of calm. Rivers near the sea, though, might be
affected by tides and get more wrought up when their flow meets an
incoming tide. My school song, by the way, much exaggerates the activity
of my city's most famous river, which is in truth quite sluggish: "Till
the mighty Hudson seaward cease to roll his heaving tide, / Stand
Columbia, alma mater, through the storms of time abide." Yes, more Milton
than Spenser, and pretty silly. The Hudson almost never heaves, but
the tides can give it some curious ripples. Anne
Prescott.
On Mon, 3 Jun 2002, David Wilson-Okamura wrote:
> The following picks up on the aquatic theme of last summer's "stinking
> seals" query; high-minded readers should probably hit the delete key now.
>
> At FQ 3.2.32, Spenser says that Britomart went to bed, but did not sleep,
> at night--
>
> The time, that mortall men their weary cares
> Do lay away, and all wilde beastes do rest,
> And euery riuer eke his course forbeares...
>
> My question has to do with this last bit: do rivers really forbear their
> course at night? The Variorum points out that these lines are a translation
> of the psuedo-Virgilian Ciris:
>
> tempore, quo fessas mortalia pectora curas,
> quo rapidos etiam requiescunt flumina cursus (232-33)
>
> This explains the text, but doesn't really answer the original question: do
> rivers really slow down at night? Spenser had a lot to say about rivers,
> and one would like to believe that his love of rivers went along with an
> intimate knowledge of their habits and properties. Having said that,
> inquiring minds still want to know...
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> David Wilson-Okamura http://virgil.org [log in to unmask]
> East Carolina University Virgil reception, discussion, documents, &c
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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