Carmen De Iona Propheta (Contd)

3 Lit. "from," i.e., which, urged by a heart which is that of a saint, even though on this occasion it failed, the prophet dared.

4 Libratur.

5 "Tarshish," Eng. ver.; perhaps Tartessus in Spain. For this question, and the "trustiness" of Joppa (now Jaffa) as a port, see Pusey on Jonah i. 3.

6 Ejusdem per signa Dei.

7 i.e., the cloud.

8 Genitus (Oehler); geminus (Migne) = "twin clamour," which is not inapt.

9 Mandare (Oehler). If this be the true reading, the rendering in the text seems to represent the meaning; for "mandare" with an accusative, in the sense of "to bid the tardy coils tighten the girth's noose," seems almost too gross a solecism for even so lax a Latinist as our present writer. Migne, however, reads mundare-to "clear" the tardy coils, i.e., probably from the wash and weed with which the gale was cloying them.

10 Tunc Domini vates ingesta Spiritus infit. Of course it is a gross offence against quantity to make a genitive in "us" short, as the rendering in the text does. But a writer who makes the first syllable in "clamor" and the last syllable of gerunds in do short, would scarcely be likely to hesitate about taking similar liberties with a genitive of the so-called fourth declension. It is possible, it is true, to take "vates" and "Spiritus" as in apposition, and render, "Then the seer-Spirit of the Lord begins to utter words inspired," or "Then the seer-Spirit begins to utter the promptings of the Lord." But these renderings seem to accord less well with the ensuing words.

11 Mundi.


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