With such a pulse, with such disorder'd veins

Title:

An Epistle from Alexander to Ephestion in his Sicknesse

Primary Text:

MS Folger, 39-41.

Secondary Eds:

1713 Misc, 97-102 (from MS Folger, not 1701 Gilden); rpt of 1713: 1903 Reynolds, 139-41.

Source:

Situation and characters derive from La Calprenede's Cassandra, see 1667 translation by Charles Cotterell, Bk 6, 184-7.

18C:

1701 Gilden, 81-7.

Comment:

Originally censored lines in Folger (7 lines omitted in 1701 put back in 1713) suggest Paristis is Mary of Modena grieving for aging and ill James II (Ephestion); other allusions are to corrupt Stuart court (though erotic languor found in La Calprenede too); like Finch's The Poor man's Lamb, despite some good lines and a general steadiness of tone and approach, a mistake; the genre demands a chaste austere generalizing tone, Finch's style is too sensual, she is too psychologically particular.
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