On Nov 27, 2012, at 10:35 AM, [email protected] wrote: > The word "decay" reappears several times in the technical part of Music's > Monument, always in conjunction with the word "rottenness". This can't be > coincidental.
You may be right about Mace using "rottenness" in the modern sense of "decomposition of organic material," but in the 1600's "decay" was not that specific in meaning. It could mean any deterioration or decline. A flood would decay when its waters ebbed. Pepys wrote in 15 May 1663 that "the Dutch decay [in the East Indies] exceedingly." The King James Bible (1611) uses decay to indicate a person's financial or civic decline: "If thy brother be waxen poor and fallen in decay with theeĀ " (Leviticus 25:35). In Ben Jonson's play Catline (I'm not kidding) Act II scene 2, a character says "She has beene a fine Ladie, And, yet, she dresses herselfe, (except you Madame) One of the best in Rome: and paints, and hides Her decayes very well." It appears that "decay" in Mace's time was less likely to convey the sense of decomposing than "rot" itself was. The obvious question is: if Mace had wanted to convey the sense of decomposing, moldering, festering gut strings unequivocally, was there a better word than "rotten"? The obvious answer is: I don't know. -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
