[LINK] DNA Coil

[Karl Auer]

On Mon, 2006-09-25 at 17:15 +0000, stephen at melbpc.org.au wrote:
> >  'mortal coil' and the bustle of life. Even back then, life was busy ..
> 
> this mortal coil [from Shakes. Hamlet.] the turmoil of life. 
> 
> so along with the bustle and turmoil of life, I'd submit 'energy of life'.

How odd. Reading those words I have always visualised people trudging
around and around in a widening spiral, moving ever further from their
starting point and yet somehow never getting that far from it, till they
finally shuffle off the "mortal coil" into oblivion... circularity, but
with progress toward the void. "Coil" meaning a turmoil or a tumult is
completely unsatisfying in context.

I'd like to see some *other* references, not just to Shakespeare. Did
anyone else, particularly any contemporary of Shakespeare, use the word
to mean "turmoil of life"? 

There's a problem with quoting Shakespeare for the meanings of words, as
he took rather a Through-The-Looking-Glass approach to a lot of them. If
he's the only and thus canonical reference...

Regards, K.

-- 
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Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)                   +61-2-64957160 (h)
http://www.biplane.com.au/~kauer/                  +61-428-957160 (mob)