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RE: Machiavelli, Shakespeare, and the Rape of Lucrece: Research Notes 7: "Wretched"

in #proofofbrain6 months ago

I checked the Geneva Bible for occurreces of the word "wretched" and there are only two:

The first one is the well know lamentation of Saint Paul:

O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death!
Romans 7:24

The second is found in Revelations:

For thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and knowest not how thou art wretched and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.
Revelation 3:17

Next, I checked the Vulgate Latin version of those texts and they make clear the distinction between the two senses of "wretched":

Infelix ego homo, quis me liberabit de corpore mortis hujus?
Romanos 7:24

quia dicis: Quod dives sum, et locupletatus, et nullius egeo: et nescis quia tu es miser, et miserabilis, et pauper, et caecus, et nudus.
Apocalypsis 3:17

For the purposes of my paper, it is Paul's lamentation that is the more pertinent of the two. Lucrece is "infelix" rather than "miser," laments her fate, and seeks to deliver herself (through self-murder) from her "body of this death."