Not P but Moby-Dick (75)

[Mark Kohut]

I think that "break the green damp mould" means to sit with Solomon...it
repeats with
this real image that man is not fitted to sit down on tomb-stones [even
some] so old
as to have green damp mould on them....

On Tue, Feb 27, 2024 at 6:49 AM Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
wrote:

> From Chapter 96:
>
> But he who dodges hospitals and jails, and walks fast crossing grave-yards,
> and would rather talk of operas than hell;  calls Cowper, Young, Pascal,
> Rousseau, poor devils all of sick men;  and throughout a care-free lifetime
> swears by Rabelais as passing wise, and therefore jolly;—not that man is
> fitted to sit down on tomb-stones, and break the green damp mould with
> unfathomably wondrous Solomon.
>
> What does "passing wise" mean here?
>
> Also, I assume "break the green damp mould with" means to "break bread
> with", but since Solomon is long dead, so there's only mould on the grave,
> is that correct?
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>