Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.
Ver. 6. Or ever the silver cord be loosed.] Or, Lengthened - i.e., before the marrow of the back (which is of a silver colour) be consumed. From this cord many sinews are derived, which, when they are loosened, the back bendeth, motion is slow, and feeling faileth.
Or the golden bowl be broken,] i.e., The heart, say some, or the pericardium; the brain pan, say others, or the pia mater, compassing the brain like a swathing cloth, or inner rind of a tree.
Or the pitcher be broken at the fountain.] That is, The veins at the liver (which is the place of sanguification, or blood making, as one calls it), but especially Vena porta and Vena cava. Read the anatomists.
Or the wheel be broken at the cistern,] i.e., The head, which draws the power of life from the heart, to the which the blood runs back in any great fright, as to the fountain of life.