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...
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David Wilson-Okamura http://virgil.org [log in to unmask]
East Carolina University Virgil reception, discussion, documents, &c
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