Not P but Moby-Dick (11)

[Ian Livingston]

I agree with Mark, and add that Melville's hyperbole here is ironic. That
is: any subjective sense of 'royalty' is to be taken lightly, as 'mundane
grandeur'.

On Mon, Sep 18, 2023 at 2:57 AM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:

> First, what does "To have been Belshazzar, King of Babylon" indicate? Is it
> a wish, or something else entirely?
>
> Mike, I think this can be best seen as the subjunctive case as you
> translate.....
>
> And, I think Yes those two lines beginning with "that man's"....are in
> parallel....
> Two aspects of presiding over one's own private table of invited guests....
>
> Melville equalizing everyman vs a King........
>
> On Mon, Sep 18, 2023 at 3:15 AM Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > The following excerpt is from Chapter 34:
> >
> > Wherefore this difference? A problem? Perhaps not. To have been
> Belshazzar,
> > King of Babylon; and to have been Belshazzar, not haughtily but
> > courteously, therein certainly must have been some touch of mundane
> > grandeur. But he who in the rightly regal and intelligent spirit presides
> > over his own private dinner-table of invited guests, that man’s
> > unchallenged power and dominion of individual influence for the time;
> that
> > man’s royalty of state transcends Belshazzar’s, for Belshazzar was not
> the
> > greatest.
> >
> > First, what does "To have been Belshazzar, King of Babylon" indicate? Is
> it
> > a wish, or something else entirely?
> >
> > Second, in the last sentence, are "that man’s unchallenged power and
> > dominion of individual influence for the time" and "that man’s royalty of
> > state" in parallel? Melville’s liberal use of the semicolon is confusing
> > sometimes.
> > --
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> >
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>