The French, notwtstanding all their civility, are horridly and furiously addicted to the cheating of strangers. If they know a man to be a stranger or they cause him not pay the double of what they sell it to others for, theyl rather not sell it at all, which whither it comes from a malitious humour or a greedy I cannot determine, yet I'm sure they play the fooll in it, for tho they think a stranger wil readily give them all they demand, or if he mint to go away that he'el come again; yet they are whiles mistaken. Many instances we could give of it in our oune experience, al whilk we sall bury at this tyme, mentioning only one of Patrick Humes, who the vinter he was at Poictiers, chancing to get the cold, went to buy some sugar candy. Demanding what they sold the unce of it for, they demanded 18 souse, at last came to 15, vould not bat a bottle;[136] wheirupon thinking it over dear he would have none of it, but coming back to Mr. Alex'rs he sent furth his man, directing him to that same wery chop, who brought him in that for 3 souse which they would not give him under 15. That story may pass in the company of one that understandes French, of the daughter who was sitting wt her mother at the fire, wt a great sigh cried, 'O que je foutcrois.The mother spearing what sayes thou, she replied readily,O que je souperois.
[136] Bate a bodle.
On September 12 arrived heir 2 Englishmen from Orleans, who brought us large commendations from Mr. Ogilvie their, who desiring to sy the toune, I took them first up to the steeple of the place, which being both situat on a eminence and also hy of it selfe gave us a clear survey of the whole toune. We discovered a great heap of wacuities filled up wt gardens and wines, and the city seimed to us like a round hill, the top of it and all the sydes being filled wt houses. And to our wiew it seimed not to have many mo houses then what we had discovered at Orleans, for their we thought we saw heir one and their one dispersed. At Orleans we would think they lay all in a heap (lump).[137] From thence, not desiring but that they sould find the Scots as civil and obligding as any, we was at the paines to take them first to the church of Nostre Dame la grande, on the wall of which that regardes the place standes the statue of the Empereur Constantine,a cheval, wt a sword in his hand. From thence to Ste. Radegondes, wheir we showed them hirtombeau; from that to St. Croix, wheir we showed them theempressaof Christs foot, of which we spake already; and from that to St. Peters, which we looked all on as a very large church, being 50 paces broad.
[137] Interlined.
In the afternoon we went to the Church of St. Hilaire, wheir at a distance we discovered the Scots walk; so called because when the Englishes ware beseiging the toune a Regiment of Scotsmen who ware aiding the French got that syde of the toune to garde and defend, who on some onset behaving themselfes gallantly the Captain got that great plot of ground which goes now under that name gifted him by the toune, who after mortified to a nunnery neir hand, who at present are in possession of it. The church we fand to smell every way of antiquity.
Heir we saw first that miraculous stone (of which we also brought away some relicts) which if not touched has no smell, if rubed hard or stricken wt a key or any other thing, casteth a most pestilentious, intollerable smell, which we could not indure. We tried the thing and fand it so. The occasion and cause of this they relate wariously. Some sayes that the stone was a sepulchre stone, and under it was buried a wicked man that had led a ill life, whos body the Dewill came on a tyme and carried away; whence the stone ever stinks in that maner since. Others say that when the Church was a bigging, the Dewill appeared to one of the maisons, in the signe [shape][138] of a mulet and troubled him; wheirupon the maison complained to St. Hilaire the Bischop, who watched the nixt day wt the maison, and the Dewill appearing in that shape he caused take him and yoke him in a cart to draw stones to the bigging of the church. They gott him to draw patiently that great stone which we saw and which stinks so, but he got away and would draw no more.
[138] Interlined.
Nixt we saw St. Hilairesberceau, wheirin they report he lay, a great long peice of wood hollowed (for it wil hold a man and I had the curiosité to lay in it a while) halfe filled wt straw that they may lay the softer. To this the blinded papists attributes the vertue of recovering madmen or those that are besydes themselfes to their right wites, if they lay in it 9 dayes and 9 nights wt their handes bound, a priest saying a masse for them once every day. And indeed according to the beleife of this place it hath bein oft verified. The fellow that hes a care of thess that are brought hither told us of a Mademoisselle who was extraordinarly distracted and who was fully recovered by this means. Another of a gentleman who had gone mad for love to a gentlewoman whom he could not obtaine, and who being brought their in that tyme recovered his right wits as weill as ever he had them in his dayes. Its commonly called theberceau de fols; so that heir in their flitting they cannot anger or affront one another worse then to cast up that they most be rockt in St. Hilaires cradle, since its none but fools or madmen that are used so.
The greatest man in the province of Poictou is the governour, who in all things representes the king their, save only that he hath not the power to pardon offenders or guilty persones. Tho a man of wast estat, to wit of 300,000 livres a year, yet he keips sick a low saile[139] that he wil not spend the thrid of his rent a year, only a pitty garde or 7 or 8 persons on foot going before his coach; and 4 or 5 lacquais behind; yea he sells vin, which heir is thought no disparadgement to no peir of France, since theirs a certain tym of the year that the King himselfe professes to sell win, and for that effect he causes at the Louwre hing out a bunch of ivy, the symbol of vin to be sold.
[139] Lives so quietly.
The King also playes notably weill on the drum, especially the keetle drumes, thinking it no disparagdement when he was a boy to go thorow Paris whils playing on the drum, whiles sounding the trumpet, that his subjects may sie whow weill hes wersed in all these warlike, brave, martiall excercises. The invention of the keetle drume we have from the Germans who makes great use of it.
The father of this present King also, Lowis the 13, could exactly frame and make a gun, and much more a pistol, with all the appartenances of it, as also canons wt all other sort of Artillerie; for he was a great engineer.
There are amongs the French nobility some great deall richer then any subject of our Kings; for the greatest subject of the King of Englands is the Duc of Ormond, or the Earle of Northumberland, nether of which tho hath above 30,000 pounds sterling, which make some 300,000 livres in french money, which is ordinar for a peir in France. The last of which, to wit, my Lord Northumberland, by reason of that great power and influence he hath in the north of England, his oune country, the parliament of England of old hath found it not a miss to discharge him the ever going their, and that for the avoiding and eviting of insurrectiones which, if he ware amongs them, he could at his pleasure raise. Surely this restraint neids not be tedious to him since he is confined in a beautiful prison, to wit, London; yea he may go thorow all the world save only Northumberland, he may come to Scotland whilkes benorth Northumberland be sea.[140] It may be it might be telling Scotland that by sick another act they layd a constrainct on that house of Huntly, the Cock of the north. If so, the French Jesuits sould not have such raison to boast (as we have heard them), and the papists sould not have so great footing in the north as they have.
[140] I have not traced the authority for this statement.
We most not forgett the drolleries we have had wt our host Mr. Daillé when I would have heard him at thegardé robe, to sport my selfe whiles, I would have come up upon him or he had bein weill begun and prayed him to make hast by reason I was exceedingly straitned when they would have bein no such thing, wheiron he would have raisen of the stooll or he had bein halfe done and up wt his breecks, it may be whiles wt something in them.
In our soups, which we got once every day, and which we have descryved already, such was Madames frugality that the one halfe of it she usually made of whiter bread, and that was turned to my syde of the board, the other halfe or a better part she made of the braner, like our rye loaves, and that was for hir and hir husband.
The bread ordinarly used heir they bake it in the forme of our great cheeses, some of them 12 pence, others 10 souse, others for 8. Thess for 10 souse are as big again as our 6 penie loaves, and some of them as fine.
There comes no vine out of France to forreine country, save that which they brimstone a litle, other wise it could not keip on the sea, but it would spoil. Its true the wine works much of it out againe, yet this makes that wine much more unwholsome and heady then that we drink in the country wheir it growes at hand. We have very strick laws against the adulterating of wines, and I have heard the English confess that they wished they had the like, yet the most do this for keiping of it; yea their hardly wine in any cabaret of Paris that is otherwise.
Hearing a bel of some convent ringing and ronging on a tyme in that same very faschion that we beginne our great or last bel to the preaching, I demanding what it meint, they told me it was for some person that was expiring, and that they cailed itl'agonie. That the custome was that any who ware at the point of death and neir departing they cause send to any religious house they please, not forgetting money, to ring a Agonie that all that hears, knowing what it means, to wit, that a brother or sister is departing, may help them wt their prayers, since then they may be steadable, which surely seimes to be wery laudable, and it nay be not amiss that it ware in custome wt us. The Church of England hath it, and on the ringing any peaple that are weill disposed they assemble themselfes in the Church to pray. In France also they ring upon the death of any person to show the hearers, calledle trespas, that some persone is dead. The same they have in England, wt which we was beguiled that night we lay at Anick, for about 2 howers of the morning the toune bel ronging on the death of one Richard Charleton, I taking it to be the 5 howers bel we rose in hast, on wt our cloaths, and so got no more sleip that night.
Their was nothing we could render Mr. Daillé pensive and melancholick so soon wt as to fall in discourse of Mr. Douglas. He hes told me his mind of him severall tymes, that he ever had a evill opinion of him; that he never heard him pray in his tyme; all 16 month he was wt him, he was not 3 or 4 tymes at Quatre Piquet [the church],[141] and when he went it was to mock; that he was a violent, passionate man; that he spak disdainefully of all persones; that he took the place of all the other Scotsmen, that he had no religion, wt a 100 sick like.
[141] Interlined.
Its in wery great use heir for the bridegroomes to give rich gifts to the brides, especially amongs thess of condition; as a purse wt a 100 pistols in it, and this she may dispose on as she pleaseth to put hir selfe bravely in the faschion against hir marriage. We have heard of a conseillers sone in Poictiers who gave in a burse 10000 livres in gold. Yet I am of the mind that he would not have bein content if she had wared all this on hir marriage cloaths and other things concerning it, as on bracelets and rings. The parents also of the parties usually gives the new married folk gifts as rich plenishing, silver work, and sicklike.
In parties appealls heir from a inferior to a superior, if it appear that they ware justly condemned, and that they have wrongously and rashly appealed, they condeime them unto a fine called heir Amende, which the Judge temperes according to the ability of the persones and nature of the businesse: the fine its converted ether to the use of the poor or the repairing of the palais.
The Jurisdiction of thess they call Consuls in France is to decide controversies arising betuixt marchand and marchand. Their power is such that their sentence is wtout appeall, and they may ordaine him whom they find in the wrong to execute the samen wtin the space of 24 howers, which give they feill to do they may incarcerate them. Thus J. Ogilvie at Orleans.
Even the wery papists heir punisheth greivously the sine of blasphemy and horrid swearing. Mr. Daillé saw him selfe at Bordeaux a procureurs clerk for his incorrigibleness in his horrid swearing after many reproofes get his tongue boored thorow wt a hot iron.
The present bischop of Poictiers is a reasonable, learned man, they say. On a tyme a preist came to gett collation from him, the bischop, according to the custome, demanding of him if he know Latin, if he had learned his Rhetorick, read his philosophy, studied the scooll Divinity and the Canon Law, etc., the preist repliedquau copois,[142], which in the Dialect of bas Poictou (which differes from that they speak in Gascoigne, from that in Limosin, from that in Bretagne, tho all 4 be but bastard French) signifiesune peu. The bischop thought it a very doulld[143] answer, and that he bit to be but a ignorant fellow. He begines to try him on some of them, but try him wheir he will he findes him better wersed then himselfe. Thus he dismissed him wt a ample commendation; and severall preists, efter hearing of this, when he demanded if they had studied sick and sick things, they ware sure to replycacopois. He never examined them further, crying, go your wayes, go your wayes, they that answerscacopoisare weill qualified.
[142] Perhapsquelque peu.
[143] Stupid, from doule, a fool.
We have sein sewerall English Books translated in French, as the Practise of Piety, the late kings [Greek: eikon basilikae], Sidneyes Arcadia, wt others.
We have sein the plume whilk they dry and make the plumdamy[144] of.
[144] Dried plum, prune.
The habit of the Carmelites is just opposite to that of the Jacobines,[145] who goe wt a long white robe beneath and a black above. The Carmes wt a black beneath and a white above. The Augustines are all in black, the Fullions all in white.
[145] Jacobins, Dominicans, so called from the church of St. Jacques inParis, granted to the order, near which they built their convent.The convent gave its name to the club of the Jacobins at theFrench Revolution, which had its quarters there.
Its very rare to sy any of the women religious, they are so keipt up, yet on a tyme as I was standing wt some others heir in the mouth of a litle lane their came furth 2 nunnes, in the name of the rest, wt a litle box demanding our charity. Each of us gave them something: the one of them was not a lass of 20 years.
Mr. Daillé loves fisch dearly, and generally, I observe, that amongs 10 Frenchmen their sall be 9 that wil præfer fisch to flech, and thinks the one much more delicat to the pallate then the other. The fisch they make greatest cont of are that they call the sardine, which seimes to be our sandell, and which we saw first at Saumur, and that they callle solle, which differs not from our fluck[146] but seimes to be the same. The French termes itle perdrix de la mer, the patridge of the sea, because as the pertridge is the most delicious of birds, so it of fisches. Mr. Daillé and his wife perceaving that we cared not for any sort of fisches, after they would not have fisches once in the moneth.
[146] Flounder.
We cannot forget a story or 2 we have heard of Capuchines. On a tyme as a Capuchin, as he was travelling to a certain village a little about a dayes journy from Poictiers, he rencontred a gentlemen who was going to the same place, whence they went on thegither. On their way they came to a little brook, over which their was no dry passage, and which would take a man mid leg. The Capuchin could easily overcome this difficulty for, being bare legged, he had no more ado but to truce up his gowen and pass over; the gentleman could not wt such ease, whence the Capucyn offers to carry him over on his back. When he was in the mides of the burn the Capucyn demanded him if he had any mony on him. The man, thinking to gratify the Capucyn, replied that he had as much as would bear both their charges. Wheiron the Capucyn replied, If so, then, Sir, I can carry you no further, for by the institution of our order I can carry no mony, and wt that he did let him fall wt a plasch in the mides of the burn.Quoeritur, whither he would have spleeted[147] on the regular obedience of their order if he carried the man having mony on him wholly throw the water.
[147] Split, spleeted on, departed from.
At another tyme a Capucyn travelling all alone fand a pistoll laying on the way. On which arose a conflict betuixt the flesch and the spirit, that same man as a Capuchin and as another man. On the one hand he reasoned that for him to take it up it would be a mortell sine; on the other hand, that to leive it was a folly, since their was nobody their to testify against him. Yet he left it, and as he was a litle way from it the flesch prevailed, he returned and took it up, but be a miracle it turned to a serpent in his hand and bit him.
Enquiring on a tyme at Madame Daillé and others whow the murders perpetrate by that fellow that lived at the port St. Lazare came to be discovered, I was informed that after he had committed these villanies on marchands and others for the space of 10 years and above, the house began to be hanted wt apparitions and spirits, whence be thought it was tyme for him to quatte it, so that he sould it for litle thing, and retired to the country himselfe. He that had bought the house amongs others reformations he was making on it, he was causing lay a underseller wt stone, whilk while they are digging to do, they find dead bodies, which breeds suspicion of the truthe, wheirupon they apprehend him who, after a fainte deniall, confesses it; and as they are carrieing him to Paris to receave condigne punishment, they not garding him weell, some sayes he put handes in himselfe, others that his complices in the crime, fearing that he might discover them, to prevent it they layd wait for him and made him away by the way, for dead folk speaks none.
On the 22 of Septembre 1665 parted from this for Paris 4 of our society, Mr. Patrick, David and Alex'r Humes, wt Colinton. We 3 that ware left behind hired horses and put them the lenth of Bonnévette, 3 leagues from Poictiers (it was built by admiral Chabot[148] in Francis the firsts time, and he is designed in the story Admirall de Bonnivette). By this we bothe gratified our commorades and stanched our oune curiosity we had to sie that house. It's its fatality to stand unfinished; by reason of whilk together wt its lack of furniture it infinitly comes short of Richelieu. It may be it may yeeld nothing to it in its bastiments, for its all built of a brave stone, veill cut, which gives a lustre to the exterior. Yet we discovered the building many wayes irregular, as in its chimlies, 4 on the one side and but 3 on the other. That same irregularity was to found in the vindows. In that which theirs up of it theirs roome to lodge a king and his palace. Al the chambres are dismantled, wtout plenishing save only one in which we fand som wery weill done pictures, as the present Kings wt the Queens, Cardinal Mazarin's (who was a Sicilian, a hatmakers sone) and others. The thing we most noticed heir was a magnifick stair or trumpket most curiously done, and wt a great deall of artifice, wt great steps of cut stone, the lenth of which I measured and fand 20 foot. I saw also a very pretty spatious hall, which made us notice it, and particularly Colinton, who told me that Colinton hous had not a hall that was worth, whence he would take the pattern of that. We fand it thre score 12 foot long, and iust the halfe of it broad, thats to say 36. Above the chimly of the roome are written in a large broad the 10 commandements.
[148] Philippe de Chabot, amiral de Brion. Guillaume Gouffier, amiral da Bonnivet, was another of Francis I's admirals.
Heir we bade adieu to our commorads, they forward to Micbo that night, 2 leagues beyond Bonnevette, to morrow being to dine at Richelieu and lay at Loudun; we back to Poictiers.
Its like that we on their intreaties had gone forward to Richelieu if we had bein weill monted; but seing us all 3 so ill monted it minded us of that profane, debaucht beschop Lesly, who the last tyme the bischops ware in Scotland (when Spootswood was Archbischop) was bischop of the Isles. He on a tyme riding with the King from Stirveling to Edinburgh he was wery ill monted, so that he did nothing but curse wtin him selfe all the way. A gentleman of the company coming up to him, and seing him wt a wery discontented, ill looking countenance demanded, Whow is it, whow goes it wt you, my Lord? He answered, Was not the Dewill a fooll man, was he not a fooll? The other demanding wheirin, he replied, If he had but sett Job on the horse I am on, he had cursed God to his face. Let any man read his thoughts from that.
The richness of France is not much to be wondred at, since to lay asyde the great cities wt their trafficks, as Tours in silkes. Bordeaux wt Holland wares of all sorts, Marseilles wt all that the Levant affordes, etc., their is not such a pitty city in France which hath not its propre traffick as Partenay[149] in its stuffes, Chatteleraut in its oil of olives, its plumdamies and other commodities which, by its river of Vienne, it impartes to all places that standes on the Loier.
[149] A town in Poitou.
In France heir they know not that distinction our Civil Law makes betuixt Tutors and Curators, for they call all curators, of which tho they have a distinction, which agries weill wt the Civil Law, for these that are given to on wtin the age of 14 they callcurateurs au persones et biens, which are really the Justinianean tutors who are givenprincipaliter ad tuendam personam pupilliandconsequenter tantum res; thes that [are] given to them that are past their 14, but wtin their 25, they callcurateurs du causes, consequentialy to that,quod curatores certoe rei vel causoe dari possunt, and wtout the auctority of thir the minors can do nothing, which tends any wayes to. the deteriorating their estat, as selling, woodsetting or any wayes alienating.
What concernes the consent of parents in the marriage of their children, the French law ordaines that a man wtin the age of 28, a woman wtin 25 sall not have the power of disposing themselfes in marriage wtout the consent of their parents. If they be past this age, and their parents wil not yet dispose of them, then and in that case at the instance of the Judge, and his auctority interveening they may marry tho their parents oppose.
When the friends of a pupil or minor meits to choose him a curator, by the law of France they are responsible to the pupill if ether the party nominat be unfitting, or behave himself fraudulently and do damnage, and be found to be notsolvendo.
At Bourges in Berry theirs no church of the religion, since, notwtstanding its a considerable toune, their are none of the religion their, but one family, consisting of a old woman and hir 2 daughters, both whores; the one of them on hir deathbed turned Catholick when Mr. Grahame was their.
Its a very pleasant place they say, situate on a river just like the Clin heir; they call it the Endre.
Heir taught the renouned Cuiacius,[150] whom they call their yet[151] but a drunken fellow. His daughter was the arrantest whore in Bourges. Its not above 4 or 5 years since she died, whence I coniecture she might be comed to good years or she died.
[150] Jacques Cujas, eminent jurist, 1522-1590.
[151] i.e. 'still speak of there as.'
This university is famous for many others learned men, as Douell,[152]Hotoman,[153] Duarene,[154] Vulteius, etc.
[152] Possibly Douat, author ofUne centaines d'anagrammes.Paris, 1647.
[153] Francois Hotman, celebrated jurist, 1524-1590.
[154] Francois Duaren, jurist, 1509-1559.
The posterity of the poor Waldenses are to be sein stil in Piedmont, Merindol, and the rest of Savoy, as also of the Albigenses in Carcasson, Beziers and other places of Narbon. They are never 10 years in quietness and eas wtout some persecution stirred against, whence they are so stript of all their goods and being that they are necessitate to implore almes of the protestant churches of France. About 12 years ago a contribution was gathered for them, which amounted to neir 400,000 livres, which was not ill.
The principall trafick of Geneva is in all goldsmiths work. The bestmontresof France are made their, so that in all places of France they demand Genevamontres, and strangers if they come to Geneva they buy usually 3 or 4 to distribute amongs their friends when their are at home.
In the mor southren provences of France to my admiration I fand they had and eated upright[155] cheries 2 tymes of the year, end of May and beginning of June, a little after which they are ordinar wt ourselfes, and also again in Octobre. On a day at the beginning of that moneth at dinner Mr. Daillé profered to make me eat of novelties, wheiron he demanded me what fruits I eated in the beginning of the year. I replied I had eaten asparagus, cherries and strawberries. You sall eat of cherries yet, said he, and wt that we got a plate full of parfait cherries, tho they had not so natural a tast as the others, by reason of the cold season, and the want of warmness which the others enioy. They had bein but gathered that same day; they are a sort of bigaro;[156] when the others are ripe they are not yet flourished.
[155] Perhaps standard. Compare 'upright bur,' Jamieson'sDict.
[156] Bigarade is a bitter orange. This may mean a bitter cherry.
The most usuall names that women are baptized wt heir be Elizabeth, Radegonde, Susanne, Marguerite and Madleine. The familiar denomination they give the Elizabeths is babie, thus they call J. Ogilvies daughter at Orleans; that for Marguerite is Gotton, thus they call Madame Daillé and hir litle daughter. Thess of the religion, usually gives ther daughters names out of the bible, as Sarah, Rachel, Leah, etc. They have also a way of deducing women names out of the mens, as from Charles, Charlotte, from Lowis, Lowisse, from Paul, Pauline, from Jean, Jeane. Thir be much more frequent amongs the baser sort then the gentility, just as it is wt the names of Bessie, Barbary, Alison and others wt us.
A camel or Dromedary would be as much gazed on in France for strangers as they would be in Scotland. In Italy they have some, but few, for they are properly Asiatick wares, doing as much service to the Persian, Arabian and others Oriental nations acknowledging the great Tartar chain as the silly, dul asse and the strong, robust mule does to the French. The camel, according to report indeniable, because a tall, hy beast it most couch and lay doune on its forward feet to receave its burden, which if it find to heavy it wil not stir til they ease it of some of it; if it find it portable it recoveres its feet immediatly.
There comes severall Jewes to France, especially as professing physick, in which usually they are profondly skilled. Mr. Daillé know on that turned protestant at Loudun. Another, a very learned man, who turned Catholik at Montpeliers, who a year after observing a great nombre of peaple that lived very devotly and honestly, that ioined not wt the Church of Rome, having informed himself of the protestants beleife, he became of the Religion, publishing a manifesto or Apology wheirin he professes the main thing whey he quites the Catholick religion for is because he can never liberate their tennet wheirby they teach that we most really and carnally eat our God in the Sacrament, from uniustice, absurdity and implication.[157]
[157] Implication perhaps means confusion of ideas.
The Laws of Spaine, as also of Portugal, strikes wery sore against Jewes that will not turne Christians, to wit, to burning them quick, which hath bein practicate sewerall tymes. On the other hand a Jew thats Christian if at Constantinople he is wery fair to be brunt also. Whence may be read Gods heavy judgement following that cursed nation. Yet Holland, that sink of all religions, permits them their synagogues and the publick excercise of their religion. They rigorously observe their sabath, our Saturdy, so that they make ready no meat on that day. If the wind sould blow of their hat they almost judge it a sin and a breach of the sabath to follow it and take it up. Their was a Jew wt us in the 1662 year of God that professed at least to turne Christian, and communicated in the Abby Church.
We may deservedly say,omnia sunt venalia Gallis, for what art their not but its to be sold publickly. Not so much as rosted aples ready drest,chastans,[158]poirs, rosted geese cut unto its percels, but they are crieng publicklie, and really I looked upon it as a wery good custome, for he that ether cannot or wil not buy a whole goose he'el buy it may be a leg.
[158] Chestnuts.
The prices of their meats waries according to the tymes of the year. The ordinars of some we have already mentioned; for a capon they wil get whiles 20 sous, whiles but 14 or 12.
Theirs a fellow also that goes wt a barrel of vinegar on his back, crieng it thorow the toune; another in that same posture fresch oil, others moustard, others wt a maille[159] to cleave wood, also poor women wt their asses loadened wt 2 barrels of water crying,Il y a l'eau fresche. At Paris its fellows that carryes 2 buckets tied to a ordinar punchion gir,[160] wtin which they march criengde l'eau, which seimed a litle strange to us at first, we not crying it so at home. Also theirs to be heard women wt a great web of linnen on their shoulder, a el[161] wand in their hand, crieng their finetoile. Theirs also poor fellows that goes up and doune wt their hurle barrows in which they carrie their sharping stone to sharp axes or gullies to any bodie that employes him.
[159] Mell, mallet, beetle.
[160] Hoop.
[161] An el.
Their came a Charlatan or Mountebanck to Poictiers the Septembre we was their, whose foolies we went whiles to sie. The most part of the French Charletanes and Drogists when they come to a toune to gain that he get them themselfes[162] a better name, and that they may let the peaple sie that they are not cheaters as the world termes them, they go to all the Phisitians, Apothecaries and Chiurgions of the toune and proferes to drink any poison that they like to mix him, since he hath a antidote against any poison whatsoever.
[162] The meaning is, with the object of getting for themselves.
A mountebank at Montpeliers having made this overture, the potingers[163] most unnaturally and wickedly made him a poisonable potion stuffed wt sulfre, quick silver, a vicked thing they call'eau forte, and diverse others burning corrasive ingredients to drink. He being confident in his antidote, he would drink it and apply his antidote in the view of all the peaple upon the stage. He had not weill drunk it when by the strenth of the ingredients he sunk all most dead upon the scalfold or stage; he suddenly made his recourse to his antidote which he had in his hand; but all would not do, or halfe a hower it bereaved him of his life.
[163] Apothecaries.
Their are also some of them that by litle and litle assuesses themselfes to the drinking of poison, so that at lenth by a habit they are able to take a considerable draught wt out doing themselfes harme. Historians reportes this also to have bein practicate by Mithridates, King of Persia [Parthia].[164]
[164] Interlined.
Upon the founding of the Jesuits Colledge at la Fleche on made thir 2 very quick lines:
Arcum dola dedit patribus Gallique sagittam,Quis funem autem quem meruere dabit.[165]
[165]Dolais a mistake fordona. The pentameter doesnot scan. It might be emended,Dic mihi quis funem.
In many places of Germany their growes very good wines, in some none at all. The Rhenish wine which growes on the renouned Rhein, on which standes so many brave tounes, is weill enough knowen. They sometymes sell their wine by the weight as the livre or pound, etc., which may seime as strange as the cherries 2 tymes a year in France. Thus they ar necessitate to do in the winter, when it freizes so that they most break it wt great mattocks and axes, and sell it in the faschion we have named.
Adultery, especially in the women, is wery vigorously punished in many places of France. In Poictou, as Mr. Daillé informed, they ignominously drag them after the taile of a mule thorow the streits, the hangman convoying them, then they sett them in the most publick part of the toune bound be a stake, wt their hands behind their backs, to be a obiect of mockery ther to all that pleases.
They that commits any pitty roobery or theifte are whipt thorow the toune and stigmatized wt a hote iron marked wt theflower de lison the cheik or the shoulder. If any be taken after in that fault having the mark, theirs no mercy for them under hanging.
Every province almost hath its sundry manner of torturing persones suspected for murder or even great crimes to extort from them a confession of the truth. At Paris the hangman takes a serviet, or whiles a wool cloath (which I remember Cleark in his Martyrologie discovering the Spanish Inquisition also mentioned), which he thrustes doune the throat of him as far as his wery heart, keiping to himselfe a grip of one end of the cloath, then zest wt violence pules furth the cloath al ful of blood, which cannot be but accompanied wt paine. Thus does theburreauay til he confesses. In Poictou the manner is wt bords of timber whilk they fasten as close as possibly can be both to the outsyde and insyde of his leg, then in betuixt the leg and the timber they caw in great wedges[166] from the knee doune to the wery foot, and that both in the outsyde and insyde, which so crusheth the leg that it makes it as thin and as broad as the loafe[167] of a mans hand. The blood ishues furth in great abondance. At Bourdeaux, the capital of Guienne, they have a boat full of oil, sulfre, pitch, resets, and other like combustible things, which they cause him draw on and hold it above a fire til his leg is almost all brunt to the bone, the sinews shrunk, his thigh also al stretched wt the flame.
[166] The torture of the boot was apparently new to Lauder, but from his later MSS., it appears to have been in use in Scotland.
[167] Loof, palm.
On a tyme we went to sie the charlatan at the Marcher Vieux, who took occasion to show the spectators some vipers he had in a box wt scalves[168] in it, as also to refute that tradition delivered by so many, of the young vipers killing their mother in raving[l69] her belly to win furth, and that wt the horrid peine she suffers in the bringing furth her young she dies, which also I have heard Mr. Douglas—preaching out of the last of the Acts about that Viper that in the Ile of Malta (wheir they are a great more dangerous then any wheir else) cleave to Pauls hand—affirme at least as a thing reported by naturalists, the etymon of the Greek word [Greek: hechidnae] seiming to make for this opinion, since it comes [Greek: apo ton echein taen odunaen][170]a habendo dolorem. Yet he hath demonstrated the falshood of that opinion: for he showed a black viper also spooted wt yellow about the lenth of a mans armes, about the grossenesse of a great inkhorne wholly shappen like a ell[171] save only its head wt its tongue, which was iust like a fork wt 2 teeth, wheir its poison mainly resydes, that had brought furth 2 young ones that same very day, which he showed us wt some life in them just like 2 blew, long wormes that are wrinkled; and notwtstanding the mother was on life and no apparence of any rupture in hir belly. To let us sie whow litle he cared for it he took hir and wrapt it that she might not reach him wt hir head, and put it in his mouth and held it a litle space wt his lipes; which tho the common peaple looked on as a great attempt, yet surely it was nothing, since their is no part of the Viper poisonnable save only its head and its guts. As for the flech of it, any man may eat it wtout hazard, for the same very charlatan promised that ere we left the toune, having decapitated and disbowelled it, he sould eat the body of it before all that pleased to look on, which he might easily do. For as litle as he showed himself to care for it, yet he having irritate and angred it, either by his brizing[172] it in his mouth or by his unattentive handling of it (for such is the nature of the Viper that tho its poison be a great deall more subtil, percing and penetrating, and consequently in some account more dangerous then that of the hideous coleuure or serpent, yet it wil not readily sting or bit except they be exasperate, when the others neids no incitations, but wil pershew a man if they sy him), when he was not taking heid, it snatcht him by the finger, he hastily shakt it of on the stage and his finger fell a blooding. He was not ordinarly moved at this accident, telling us that it might endanger the losse of his finger. He first scarified the flech that was about the wound, then he caused spread some theriac (one of the rarest contrepoisons, made mainly of the flech of the Viper) on a cloath which he applied to it. About a halfe hower after he looked to it in our presenc, and his finger was also raisen in blay[173] blisters. He said he would blood himselfe above a hower, to the end to reid himselfe of any blood already poisoned and infected, lest by that circulation that the blood makes thorow al the body of a man once of the 24 howers the blood infected sould communicate itselfe to much. Also he sayd that he had rather bein stung in the leg, the thigh, or many other parts of the body then the finger, by reason of the great abondance of nerves their, and the sympathy the rest of the body keips wt them, which renders the cure more difficile.
[168] Shelves.
[169] Riving, tearing.
[170] Mistake for [Greek: hodunaen]. The etymology is fanciful and incorrect.
[171] Eel.
[172] Squeezing.
[173] Livid.
This charlatan seimed to be very weill experimented. He had bein at Rome, which voyage is nothing in France, and thorow the best of France. The stone thats to be found in the head of the hie[174] toad is very medicinal and of great use their. They call a toad grappeau; a frog grenouille.
[174] i.e. he.
The papists looks very much on the 7 sone for the curing of the cruels;[175] severall of the protestants look on it as superstition. They come out of the fardest nooks of Germany, as also out of Spain itselfe, to the King of France to be cured of this: who touches wt thir wordes, which our King æquivalently uses, tho he gives no peice of Gold as our King does,c'est le roy qui vous touche, c'est Dieu qui vous guerisse. He hath a set tyme of the year for the doing of it. The day before he prepares himself by fasting and praying that his touche may be the more effectuall. The French could give me no reason of it but lookt on it as a gift of God.
[175] Cruels, scrofula, king's evil. For the healing powers of the seventh son, compare Chambers'sBook of Days, vol. i. p. 167;Notes and Queries, June 12, 1852.
We can not forget a witty answer of a young English nobleman who was going to travel thorow France and Italie, whom his friends feared exceedingly that he would change his Religion, because he mocked at Religion. They thought that King James admonition to him might do much to keip him constant, wheiron they prayed the King to speak to him. Yes I shall do that, quoth he. When he came to take his leave of the King, King James began to admonish him that he would not change his Religion, for amongs many other inconveniences he would so render himselfe incapable of serving his King and his country, and of bearing any office theirin. He quickly replied, I wonder of your Majesty who is so wise a man that ye sould speak so; for ther is no a man in all France or Italy that wil change wt me tho I would give him a 100,000 livres aboot.[176] The King was wery weill satisfied wt this, telling his freinds that he was not feared he would change, but that he saw he would bring back all the Religion he carried afield wt him.
[176] To boot.
At the Marcher Vieux beyond our expectation we saw one of the fellows eat the Viper head and all. The master striped it as a man would do an elle, and clasped it sicker wtin a inch of its neck. The fellow took the head of it in his mouth and zest[177] in a instant bit it of its neck and over his throat wt it, rubing his throat griveously for fear that it stake their. He had great difficulty of getting it over, and wt the time it had bein in his mouth his head swalled as big as 2 heads. The master immediatly took a glasse halfe full of wine, in which he wrang the blood and bowells of the headlesse body of the Viper and caused him drink it also, breaking the glasse in which he drank it to peices on the stage, causing sweip all wery diligently away that it might do no harme. Immediatly on the fellows drinking of it he had ready a cup of contrepoison, which he caused him drink, then giving him a great weighty cloak about his shoulders he sent him to keip him selfe warme before a great fire. The reason of which was to contrepoise the cold nature of this poison as of all that poison thats to be found in living creatures, which killeth us by extinguishing our natural radical heat, which being chockt and consumed the soul can no more execute its offices in the body but most depart.
[177] Just.
In the more Meridional provinces of France, as Provence, Languedoc, etc., they have besydes the other ordinar Serpents also Scorpions, which, according as we may sie them painted, are just like a litle lobster, or rather the Frenchrivier Escrivises. They carry their sting in their taile as the Viper does in its mouth. Tho it be more dangerous then any, yet it carries about wt it contrepoison, for one stung wt it hath no more ado, but to take that same that stung him, or any other if he can light on it, and bruise out its substance on the place wheir he is stung, and theirs no hazard. The potingers also extracts a oile which hath the same virtue.
Its not amisse to point as it ware wt the finger at that drollery of the priest who preaching upon the gifts that the 3 wise men gave to Christ, alleadged the first gaved'or, myrrthe, the 2dargent. He could never find, tho he repeated it 20 tymes over, what the 3d gave wt the rest of its circumstances. As also of the soger that made good cheir to his Landlord; and of Grillet the Deviner who notwtstanding of his ignorance yet fortune favorized.
The Frenchwomen thought strange to hear that our women theyle keip the house a moneth after they are lighter, when they come abroad on 8 dayes, and they are very weak that keips it a fortnight.
Be the Lawes of France a slave, let him be a Turk, slave to a Venitien or Spaniard, etc. (such enemies they pretend themselfes to be to servitude, tho their be legible enough marks of it amongs them as in theirgens de main mort,[178] etc.), no sooner sets he his foot on French ground butipso factohe is frie. Yet al strangers are not in the same condition their, nether brook they the same priveledges, for some they call Regnicolls,[179] others Aubiens[180] (suivans les loix du Royaume, bastards). The principal difference they make betuixt them is this, that if a Regnicoll such as the Scots are, chance to dy in France they have the power of making a testament and disposing of their goods as they please which they have their, whither they be moveable or immoveable. If they die not leiving a testament yet its no less secure, since their friends to the 10 degrie may take possession of them. Its not so wt the Aubiens who have no such right, but dieng, the King is their heir, unless it may be they be Aubiens naturalized, who then begin to have the priveledges of the others and the very natives.
[178] Serfs under the feudal law, whose power of disposing of their property by will was restricted.
[179] A legal term meaning native or naturalised citizens.
[180]Aubains. Foreigners, whose succession fell to the Crown (droit d'aubaine).
The Laws of France [this is the rigor][181] denies children begotten in Adultery or incest aliments, which tho harsh, condemning the innocent for the guilty, yet they think it may serve to deterre the parents from sick illicit commixtions.
[181] Interlined.
The Laws of France, as of the most of Europe (tho not practicate wt us), in thess case wheirin a man gets a woman wt child, ordains that ether he marry hir or that he pay hir tocher good, which is very rigorously execute in France.
We can not forget a Anagram that one hes found in Cornelius Jansenius, to wit,Calvini sensus in ore.
At Rome the Jews have a street assigned to them to live in a part. In France, especially in Montpeliers, wheir theirs seweralls, they dare not wear hats of that coleur that others wear, as black or gray, but ether rid or green or others, that all may know them from Christians.
The King of France amongs other titles he assumes, he calls himselfe Abbot of St. Hilaire, to wit of that church that bears the name in Poictiers, whence its amongs the ænigma'es of France that the Abbot of St. Hilaire hath the right of laying with the Queen of France the 1 night of the marriage. Wheirupon when this king married the Infanta of Spaine, some of the French nobility told hir that the Abbot of St. Hilaire had the right of lying wt the Queen of France the first night, she replied that no Abbot sould lay wt hir but her prince. They pressing that the laws of France ware such, she answered she would have that law repealed. They telling hir the matter she said the Abbot sould be welcome.
The most part of Them that sweips the chimelies in France we discovered to be litle boyes that come out of Savoy wt a long trie over the shoulders, crying shrilly thorow the cityes,je vengeray vos cheminées haut en bas. Its strange of thir litle stirrows,[182] let us or the Frenchmen menace them as we like we can never get them to say,Vive le Roy de France, but instead of it, ayVive la Reine de Sauoye.
[182] Lads, fellows.
We was not a little amazed to sy them on dy making ready amongs other things to our diet upright poddock stools, which they callpotironsorchampignons. They'le raise in a night. They grow in humid, moisty places as also wt us. They frie them in a pan wt butter, vinegar, salt, and spice. They eated of it greedily vondering that I eated not so heartily of them as they did; a man seimes iust to be eating of tender collops in eating them. But my praeiudice hindred me.
To know the way of making their sups is not uunecessar since our curiosity may cause us make of them at home. Of this we spoke something already. Further he that hes made ready boiled flech, he hath no more ado but to take the broth or sodden water wt his flech and pour it above his cut doune loaves, which we proved to be very nourishing. If a man would make a good soup wtout flech, he would cut me doune some onions wt a lump of butter ether fresh or salt, which he sall frie in a pan, then pour in some vinaigre, then vater, then salt and spice, and let al boil together, then pour it on your sup, and I promise you a good sup.
We cannot forget what good company we have had some winter nights at the fire syde, my host in the one noock, Madame in the other, and I in the mides, in the navel of the fire. He was of Chattelerault, she of Partenay: they would fallen to and miscalled one anothers country, reckning over al that might be said against the place wheir the other was born and what might be sayd for their oune. Whiles we had very great bickering wt good sport. They made me iudge to decide according to the relevancy of what I fand ether alledge. I usually held for Madame as the weaker syde.
The most part of the French sauces they make wt vergus.[183] For geese they use no more but salt and water.
[183] Verjuice.
This consequence may be whiles used: Sy ye this, yes. Then ye are not blind: hear you that; R, yes. Then ye are not deaf.
We saw a horse ruber wt a blew bonnet in Poictiers almost in the faschion of our Scotes ones; another we saw not, from our leiving of Berwick, til our returne to it againe.
To be fully informed of the history of the brave General [Mareschal][184] Birron,[185] whom they had such difficulty to get headed; as of the possessed Convent of Religious vomen calledles diablesses de Loudun; as of the burning of the preist as sorcerer and his arraigning his iudges before the tribunal of the Almighty to answer him wtin a few dayes, and all that sat upon his Azize their dying mad wtin som litle tyme; it wil not be amisse to informe ourselfe of them from the History of France.
[184] Interlined.
[185] Ch. de Gontant, Duc de Biron, Marshal of France, born 1562, died 1602. A favourite of Henry IV, but executed for treason against him.
The French, tho the civilest of peaple, yet be seweral experiences we may find them the most barbarous. Vitnes besyde him who dwellt at Porte St. Lazare, another who brunt his mother because she would not let him ly wt hir, and was brunt quick himselfe at the place in Poictiers some 5 years ago.
The French Law is that if a women be 7 years wtout hearing news of hir husband that she may marrie againe.
We have marked the German language to have many words common wt our oune, as bread, drink, land,Goetfor our God;rauber; feeds,[186]inimiticiæ; march,limites; fich; flech;heer, sir; our man,homo;weibfor wife.
[186] Feeds,fehde, feuds.
We have eated puddings heir also that we call sauses, which they make most usualy of suine.
We cannot passe over in silence the observation the naturalists hath of the Sow, that it hath its noble parts disposed in the same very sort they are found in a man, which may furnish us very great matter of humility, as also lead us to the consideration and sight of our bassesse, that in the disposall of our noble parts we differ nothing from that beast which we recknon amongs the filthiest. They make great use of it in France heir. In travelling we rencontred wery great heards.
Tuo boyes studieing the grammar in the Jesuits Colledge at Poictiers, disputing before the regent on their Lesson, the on demanded,Mater cuius generis est: the other, knowing that the mother of the proponer had a wery ill name of a whore, replied wittily,distinguo; da distinctionemthen; replied,si intelligas de meâ est faeminini; si de tua, est communis(in the same sort does Rosse tel it).
The occasion of the founding that order of the Charterous in France is wery observable. About the tyme of the wars in the Low Contries their was a man at Paris that led one of the strictest, godliest and most blameless lifes that could be, so that he was in great reputation for his holinesse. He dies, his corps are carried to some church neir hand wheir a preist was to preach his funeral sermon the nixt day. A great concourse of peaple who know him al weill are gathered to heir, amongs other, lead by meer curiosity, comes a Soger (Bruno) who had served in the Low Country wars against the Spaniard and had led a very dissolute, prophane, godless life. The preist in his sermon begins to extol the person deceased and amongs other expressions he had that, that undoubtedly he was in paradis at the present. Upon this the dead man lifted himselfe up in his coffin and cried wt a loud voice,justo dei iudicio citatus sum: the peaple, the preist and al ware so terrified that they ran al out of the kirk, yet considering that he was a godly man and that it would be a sin to leive his corps unburied they meit the nixt day. They ware not weill meet, when he cried again,iusto dei indicio indicatus sum; when they came again the 3d tyme, at which he cried,justo dei iudicio condemnatus sum. This seimed wery strange to all, yet it produced no such effects in any as in our Soger, who was present al the tymes: it occasioned enexpressible disquietment of spirit, and he fell a raisoning, If such a man who was knowen to be of so blamlesse a conversation, who was so observant of al his dueties to God be dammed, hath not obtained mercy, oh what wil word of[187] the who hath lead so vicious a life, thinks thou that thou will be able to reach the height that that man wan to, no. At last considering that company and the tongue ware great occasions to sin he resolves to institute a order who sould have converse wt none and whom all discourse should be prohibited save onlie when they meet one another, thir 2 wordsMemento Mori. For this effect he fel in scrutiny of a place wheir they might be friest from company, and pitched upon a rocky, desolate, unhabited place not far from Grenoble (about 3 leagues), wheir they founded their first Convent, which bears the name of Chartrouse, and is to be sein at this day. Notwtstanding that their first institution bears that they stay far from the converse of men, yet (which also may be observed in the primitive Monachisme) they are creeping into the most frequented cities. Vitness their spatious Convent, neir halfe a mile about, at Paris.
[187] What will become of thee. Compare German,werden, geworden.
These of the Religion at Poictiers from St. Michel to Paise[188] they have no preaching the Sabath afternoone.
[188] Pasch, Easter.
Its not leasum for a man or woman of the Religion to marry wt a Papist; which if they do, they most come and make a publick confession of the fault and of the scandal they have given by such a marriage before the whole church. Experience hes learned them to use it wery sparingly and meekly, for when they would have put it in execution on som they have lost them, they choosing rather to turne papists then do it. We are not so strick in this point as they are; for wt uslicet sed non expedit cum non omne quod liceat honestum sit.
Out of the same fear of loosing them they use wery sparingly the dart of excommunication except against such as lives al the more scandoulously. The protestants in speaking of their Religion before papists they dare not terme it otherwise thenpretendue Reformée.
We have eaten panches[189] heir, which we finding drest in a different sort from ours but better, we informed ourselfe of it thus: they keip them not intier as we do, but cuts them into peices as big as a man wil take in his mouth at once, then puts them in a frying pan wt a considerable lump of butter, having fryed them a good space, they put in vineger, a litle salt and some spice; this is all.
[189] Tripe.
Their goosing irons they heat them not in the fire as we do; but hath a pretty device. They make the body of the iron a great deall thicker then ours, which is boss,[190] and which opens at the hand, which boss they fil wt charcoall, which heats the bottom of the iron, which besydes that its very cleanly, they can not burn themselfes so readily, since the hands not hot.
[190] Hollow.
They dry not out their linnens before the fire as we do: they have a broad thing iust like a babret[191] on which we bak the cakes, only its of brass very clear, its stands on 4 right hight feet. They take a choffer whiles of brass oftner lame,[192] filled wt charcoall, which they sett beneath the thing, on which they dry out their cloaths wery neitly.
[191] Babret or bawbret or baikbred, kneading trough.
[192] Earthenware.
We think fit to subioine heir a ridle or 2. Your father got a child; your mother bore the same child and it was nether brother nor sister to you: yourselfe. A man married a woman which was so his wife, his daughter and his sister. A man got his mother wt child of a lasse, which by that means was both his sister and his daughter, whom he afterwards not knowing married.
France thinkes it a good policy to height[193] the gold and silver of stranger nations, by that thinking to draw the money of al other nations to themselfes. This gives occasion to that book we have sein calledDeclaration du Roy et nouveau reglement sur le faict des Monnoyes tant de France que estrangeres, donné par Lowis 13, an1636. This book at least hath 500 several peices gold and silver currant in France. It specifies what each of them vieghs and what the King ordaines them to passe for. First he showes us a great nombre of French peices of gold wt their shapes what they carry on both sydes: then the gold of Navarre that passes: then the Spanish and of Flanders, as the ducat and pistoles: then of Portugal, as St. Estienne: then the English Rosenoble passing for 10 livres 10 souse: the noble Henry of England for 9 liv. 10 souse: English Angelot for 7 livres: the Scotes and English Jacobuses, which we call 14 pound peices, as also the Holland Ridres for 13 liv: that Scots peice thats wt 2 swords thorow other, crouned the whol is 13, the halfe one 6 liv. 10 souse (it hath,salus populi est suprema lex): the new Jacobus, which we cal the 20 shiling sterling peice, 12 fra: then Flandres gold. The Scotes croune of gold, which hath on the one syde_ Maria D.G. Regina Scotorum_, passes for 4 livres 5 souse.[194] Then he hath the Popes money, which hath Peter and Paul on the one syde and the Keyes, the mitre and 3 flies on the other, some of it coined at Avignon, some at Rome. Then the gold of Bologne, Milan, Venise, Florence, Parma, Avoye, Dombes, Orange, Besançon, Ferrare, Lucque, Sienne, Genes, Savoye, Geneve, wt that about the syde,lux oritur post tenebras: Lorraine, Liege, Spinola, Mets, Frise, Gueldres, Hongry, L'empyre, Salbourg, Prusse, Provinces Unies wt this,concordiâ res parvae crescunt, Ferrare and then of Turquie, which is the best gold of them al, its so fine it wil ply like wax: the armes wtin consistes of a number of caracters iust like the Hebrew. Thus for the Gold. As to mony it hath al the several realles of the Spaniard, as of al the Dolles or Dollers of the Empire wt the silver of al their neighbouring nations. Our shiling[195] is ordained to passe for 11 souse.
[193] Enhance the price of.
[194] For a comparison of these values, see Introduction, p. xliii.
[195] Here the shilling sterling.
Goropius Becanus in hesOrigines Antwerpianaewould wery gladly have the world beleive that the Cimbrick or Low Dutch is the first language of the world, that which was spoken in Paradise; finally that the Hebrew is but a compond ishue of it because the Hebrew seimes to borrow some phrases and words of it when in the interim[196] it borrows of none. This he layes doune for a fondement and as in confesso, which we stiffly and on good ground denieng, al his arguments wil be found to split on the sophismepetitionis principii.
[196] When in fact. So again p. 85.
The ground upon which the Phrygians vendicats their langage for the anciennest is not worth refuting, to wit that these 2 Children that Psammeticus King of Egypt caused expose so that they never hard the woice of man: the first thing ever they cried wasbec, which in the Phrygian language, as also in old Low Dutch (so that we have to do wt Goropius heir also, who thinks this to make mutch to his cause) signifies bread, is not worth refuting, since they might ether light on that word by chance, or they had learned it from the baying of the sheip wt whom they had conversed.
To abstract from the Antiquitie of tongues, the most eloquent language at present is the French, which gets such acceptance every wheir and relishes so weill in eaches pallat that its almost universal. This it ounes to itsbeauxs esprits, who hath reformed it in such a faschion that it miskeens the garbe it had 50 or 60 years ago, witnessel'Historie du Serre(francion),[197] Montaign'es Essayes and du Barta'es Weeks,[198] who wt others have written marvelously weill in the language of their tyme, but at present is found no ways smooth nor agriable. We have sein the works of Du Bartas, which, tho in langage at present ancient, is marvelously weill exprest, large better than his translator Joseph Sylvester hath done. Amongs his works their was one which I fancied exceidingly,La Lepanthe de Jacques 6, Roy d'Ecosse, which he tornes in French, containing a narration of that bloody wictory the Christians gained over the Turk, Octobre 1571, the year before the massacre at Paris, on the Lepanto, which Howel in his History of Venise describes at large. He speaks wt infinite respect of our King, calling him among other stilesPhoenix Ecossois.
[197]Francioninterlined.Histoire Comique de Francion, 1623-67. Sorel mentioned again p. 104. For de Serre, see same page. I thought at first that here Serre might be Sieur, but it is distinctly written, therefore perhapsFrancionis interlined by mistake. The reference is to an early writer, De Serres died in 1598. Sorel'sFrancionwas published in 1623.
[198] G. de Saluste, sieur du Bartas, 1544-1590, religious poet. HisDivine Weekswere translated by Joshua Sylvester.
To returne to our French language, not wtout ground do we estime it the Elegantest tongue. We have bein whiles amazed to sy [hear][199] whow copiously and richly the poor peasants in their meiting on another would expresse themselfes and compliment, their wery language bearing them to it; so that a man might have sein more civility in their expressions (as to their gesture its usually not wery seimly) then may be fund inthe first compliments on a rencontre betuixt 2 Scotes Gentlemen tolerably weil breed. Further in these that be ordinar gentlewomen only, theirs more breeding to be sein then in some of our Contesses in Scotland. For their frinesse[200] ennemy to a retired sullen nature they are commended be all; none wt whom a person may move easily and sooner make his acquaintance then wt them, and yet as they say wery difficult to board; the Englishwomen being plat contrary. They wil dance wt him, theyle laugh and sport wt him, and use al innocent freedome imaginable, and this rather wt strangers then their oune….[201]
[199] Interlined.
[200] Freeness.
[201] Four lines erased in MS.
This much precisely for the French mony (only its not to be forgotten that no goldsmith dare melt any propre French mony under the pain of hanging), their langage, and their women: of the men we touched something already in a comparison of them wt the Spaniard. I have caused Madame Daillé some vinter nights sit doune and tell me tales, which I fand of the same very stuffe wt our oune, beginning wt that usuallyIl y avoit un Roy et une Reine, etc., only instead of our red dracons and giants they have lougarous or war-woophs.[202] She told me on a tyme the tale or conte of daupht Jock wt hissotteries, iust as we have it in Scotland. We have laughten no litle at some.
[202] Loups-garou or were-wolves,
We saw the greatest aple we ever saw, which we had the curiosity to measure, to measure about and fand it 18 large inches. The gourds are monstrous great heir: we have sein them greater then any cannon bullet ever we saw. We have eaten cormes[203] heir, which is a very poor fruit, tho the peasants makes a drink of it they call cormet. In Octobre is the tyme of their roots, as Riphets, tho they eat of them al summer throw, neips and passeneips.[204]
[203] Sorb apples.
[204] Parsnips.
Let us mark the reason whey the Pope permits bordel houses at Rome, and then let us sie who can liberat it from clashing immediatly wt the Aposles rule, Romans 3, v. 8. O. sayes the Pope, the toleration of stues in this place is the occasion of wery much good, and cuts short the occasion of wery mutch evil, for if men, especially the Italian, who, besydes his natural genius to Venery, is poussed by the heat of the country had not vomen at their command to stanch them, its to be feared that they would betake themselfes to Sodomy (for which stands the Apology of the Archbischop of Casa at this day), Adultery, and sick like illicit commixtions, since even notwtstanding of this licence we grant to hinder them from the other, (forex duabus malis minus est eligendum), we sie some stil perpetrating the other. O brave, but since we sould not do evil that good sould come theirof, either let us say this praetext to be false and vicket, or the Aposles rule to be erroneous. Nixt if ye do it on so good a account, whence comes it that the whores most buy their licence by a 100,000 livres a year they pay to your exchequer, whey have they not simply their liberty since its a act, as ye say, of so good consequence?
The ancient inhabitants of Rome at that tyme when it became of Pagan Christian seimes to me much viser then our reformers under Knox when we past from Papisme to Protestantisme. They did not demolish the Heathen Idol temples, as we furiously did Christian, but converted them to Christian temples, amongs others witness the stately temple dedicat to the goddess Fortune, much respected by the Romans, at present a church. Yea the Italians boasts that they have cheated, robbed the Devil in converting that hous which was consecrat for his service unto the service of the true God. But all that heirs of our act laughts at it as madness.
Theirs a Scots Colledge at Rome.
I find that conclusion the Duke of Burgundy tried on a peasant, whom he fand in a deip sleip in the fields as he returned from the hunting on a tyme, wery good. On a tyme we fel a discoursing of those that are given to riseng in their sleip and do things, whiles more exactly then give they ware waking. I cannot forget on drollery. 2 gentlemen fell to lodge to gither at one innes, the one began to plead for a bed by himselfe, since the other would find him a wery ill bedfellow, for he was so much given to hunting, that in the night he used to rise and cry up and doune the chambre hobois, hobois, as on his dog; the other thought Il'e sy if I can put you from that, wheiron he feigned he was iust of that temper in rising thorow his sleip, and that he was so much given to his horses that he thought he was dressing and speaking to them. Since it was so[205] they lay both together; about midnight the one rises in his sleip begines to cry on his doges; the other had brought a good whip to the bed wt him, makes himselfe to rise as throw his sleip, fals to and whipes the other throw the house like a companion,[206] whiles crying, Up, brouny; whiles, Sie the iade it wil no stir. The other wakened son enough, crying for mercy, for he was not a horse; the other, after he had whipt him soundly, made himselfe to waken, wheiron the other fel a railing on him; the other excused himselfe wery fairly, since he thought he was whiping his horses. In the interim the other never rose to cry on his doges again.
[205] Interlined.
[206] Low fellow.
France in such abondance produces win, that seweral years if ye'el bring 2 punchions to the field as great as ye like, live them the on and they'le let you carry as many graps wt you as the other wil hold.
They have in France thechat sauuage; the otter, which is excellent furring; the Regnard, the Wolfe. In the mountaines of Dauphiné theirs bothoursandsangliers, bear and boor.
Their doges are generally not so good as ours. Yet their a toune in Bretagne which is garded by its dogs, which all the day ower they have chaned, under night they loose, who compasses the toune al the night ower, so that if either horse or man approach the city, they are in hazard to be torn in peices.
The wolfes are so destructive to the sheip heir that if a man kill a wolfe and take its head and its taille and carry it thorow the country willages and little borrowes, the peasants as a reward will give him som egges, some cheese, some milk, some wooll, according as they have it. They have also many stratagemes to take the wolfe. Amongs others this: they dig a wery dip pit, wheir they know a wolfe hantes; they cover it with faill,[207] fastens a goose some wery quick, which by its crying attracks the wolfe who coming to prey on the goose, zest[208] plumpes he in their, and they fell him their on the morning.
[207] Turf.
[208] Just.
We have sein that witty satyre that Howel has about the end of his Venitian History in French. The French Ministers of the Religion are exceedingly given to publish their sermons, in that like to the English. Vitnesse Daille'es sermons; Jean Sauvage, Ministre at Bergerac, betuixt Limosin (wheir they eat so much bread when they can get it) and Perigord, dedicated to Mr. de la Force, living at present their, Mareschal de France, father of Mareschal Turaines lady: wt diverses others we have sein. We have sein a catechisme of Mr. Drelincourt which we fancied exceedingly.
The halfe of France wt its revenues belongs to the Ecclesiasticks, yea, the bueatifullest and the goodliest places. To confine our selfes wtin Poictiers, the rents of whosse convents, men and women togither, wil make above six 100 thousand livers a years, besydes what the bischop hath, to wit, 80,000 livres a year. The Benedictines, a wery rich order as we have marked, have 30,000 livres in rent; the Feuillans[209] 20,000; besydes what the Jacobins, Cordeliers, Minims, thess de la Charité, Capucyns, Augustins, the Chanoines of Ste. Croix, St. Radegonde, St. Peter, the cathedral of Poictiers, Notre Dame la grande, St. Hilaires, wt other men and al the women religious, have, being put togither wil make good my proposition.