Date: Tue, 3 Feb 1998 11:06:01 -0500 (EST)
From: Gregory {Greg} Downing <downingg-AT-is2.nyu.edu>
Subject: Re: PLC: Enameled In Fire


At 01:30 AM 2/3/98 EST, you wrote:
>In a message dated 98-02-02 18:53:23 EST, you write:
>
>> I have been unsuccessful in locating the work of Plutarch that is the 
>> source
>>  of the following reference in Emerson's "Essay on Love."
>>  
>>              Love makes the face of nature radiant with purple
>>  		light, the morning and the night are varied enchantments,
>>  		and in love the single tone of a voice makes our heart
>>  		beat...and all these forms are placed in the amber of
>>  		memory...for the figures, the motions, the words of the
>>  		beloved are not like other images written in water, but,
>>  		as Plutarch said, "enameled in fire."
>>  
>>  Can anyone help?
>>  
>I don't think enamel ware is made before the middle ages, maybe c. AD 1000, so
>it's hard to believe Plutarch would have orignally used that phrase.
>
>pat [sloane]
>

That's why I suggested trying to look for "fire" instead. My guess would
still be that the hottest lead would be to try North's 17C englishing of
Plutarch, which to be honest Emerson is perhaps rather likelier to have read
than the Greek original. Certainly if "enameled" is an anachronism from
Plutarch's angle, he did not get that image from Plutarch, but could well
have gotten it from an esteemed 17C translation. "Enameled" was a common
image 17C image; if I recall, OED has lots of 17C usage cites for
"enameled", incl. one from Shakespeare and one from Milton, in both cases in
well-known texts.

Gregory {Greg} Downing, at greg.downing-AT-nyu.edu or downingg-AT-is2.nyu.edu 



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