Chapter VI: Introduction: The Manuscripts (6)

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's _Book 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 French _rivier 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 gave _d'or, myrrthe_, the 2d _argent_. 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 their _gens de main mort_,[178] etc.), no sooner sets he his foot on French ground but _ipso facto_ he 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, ay _Vive 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 call _potirons_ or _champignons_. 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 called _les 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, _Goet_ for our God; _rauber_; feeds,[186] _inimiticiæ_; march, _limites_; fich; flech; _heer_, sir; our man, _homo_; _weib_ for 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 distinctionem_ then; 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 words _Memento 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 us _licet 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 then _pretendue 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 called _Declaration du Roy et nouveau reglement sur le faict des Monnoyes tant de France que estrangeres, donné par Lowis 13, an_ 1636. 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 hes _Origines Antwerpianae_ would 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 sophisme _petitionis 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 was _bec_, 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 its _beauxs esprits_, who hath reformed it in such a faschion that it miskeens the garbe it had 50 or 60 years ago, witnesse _l'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 stiles _Phoenix Ecossois_.

[197] _Francion_ interlined. _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 perhaps _Francion_ is
interlined by mistake. The reference is to an early writer, De
Serres died in 1598. Sorel's _Francion_ was published in 1623.

[198] G. de Saluste, sieur du Bartas, 1544-1590, religious poet. His
_Divine Weeks_ were 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 usually _Il 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 his _sotteries_, 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, (for _ex 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 the _chat sauuage_; the otter, which is excellent furring; the Regnard, the Wolfe. In the mountaines of Dauphiné theirs both _ours_ and _sangliers_, 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.

[209 1] See p. 47, *note.

We had almost forgot the Jesuits, who, above 50 years ago, entred Poictiers wt their staffes in their hand, not a 100 livres amongs them all, since have wt their crafty dealings so augmented their Convent that they have 40,000 livres standing rent. Whow they come be this is not uneasy to dewine, we toucht it a litle already. If any fat carcasse be on his deathbed, they are sure to be their, undermine him wt all the slights imaginable, wring donations in their faveurs from them, of which we know and have heard seweral exemples: vitness the Abby at Bourdeaux, whom they undermined, and he subtilly getting a grip of his testaments tore it and so revocked his will. Also that testament so agitate by the Jesuits and the sone of the deceased who was debauched before the Duke of Parme, the Jesuits relaying on thesse words that the fathers Jesuits sould be his heirs, providing that they gave his sone _ce qu'ils voudront_, what they would: the Duk turning them against the Jesuits exponed them, that what they would have themselfes that that sould be given to his sone.

Diverse others we have heard. The lawes of France wil hardly permit the father to disinherit his sone, unless he can prove him guilty of some hy ingratitude and disobedience against him, or that he hath attempted something against the life of his father; that he is debaucht he cannot.

The custome among the great ones of the most part of the world is that they cause any other of quality that comes to sy them be conveyed thorow their stables to sy their horses, as also causeth them sy their doges, their haucks, ther gardens. Particularly in Spaine the custome is such, that they take special heed what horse or what dog ye praise most, and if ye change[210] to say, O their is a brave horse, the horse wil be as soon at your lodging in a gift as your selfe wil be.

[210] Chance.

We happened to discourse on night of fools and madmen, of their several sortes, of the occasions, as love, study, vin, hypocondriack, melancholly, etc. They told me of one at Marseilles who beleifed himselfe to be the greatest King of the world, that all the shipes of the harbour, together wt their waires, ware his; of another who really beleifeth himselfe to be made of glasse, cryed horridly if any but approach him for fear they sould break him. His friends, at the advice of some Doctor, took a great sand glasse and brook it on tyme on his head as he was raging in that fit: seeing the peices of glasse falling doune at his feet he cryed more hideously then ever, that he was broken to peices, that his head was broken. After he had calmed a litle they desyred his to consider that the glasse was broken, but that he was not broken; and consequently that he was not glasse. On this remonstrance he came to himselfe, and confessed he was not glasse. The same was practicat on a nother who beleived himselfe to be lame.

We cannot forgett a story that happened at the bedlam at Paris. 2 gentlemen out of curiosity coming to sie the madmen, the Keeper of the Hospital be reason of some businesse he had could not go alongs wt them, whence he ordains one of the fools that was besyde to go alongs wt them, and show them al the madmen wt the occasions and nature of their madnese. The fool carried them thorow them all, showing that their was on mad for love, their another wt to much study, a third besottedly fool wt drunkness, a 4th Hypocondriack, and so wt all the rest marvelous pertinently. At last as they ware going out he sayd: Gentlemen, I beleife ye wondred at the folly of many ye have sein; but theirs a fool (pointing at him) whom ye'el admire more then them all, that poor fellow beleifes him selfe to be the beloved Aposle St. John, but to let you sie that he is not St. John, and whow false his beleife is, I that am St. Piter (for he chiefly held himselfe to be St. Peter) who keips the gates of heaven never opend the door to let him in yet. The gentlemen thought wery strange to find him so deiply fooll when they reflected whow pertinently he had discoursed to them before and not discovered the least foly. They ware informed that he was once a doctor in the colledge of Sorbonne, and that to much study had reduced him to that. It would appear he hes studied to profundly Peters primacy above the rest of the Aposles.

The Protestant Churches throw Poictou keip a solemne fast 28 of Octobre, wt the Papists St. Simons day. The occasion was to deprecate Gods wrath which he showed he had conceived by reason he threathned them in sewerall places wt Scarcity of his word and removing of his candlestick, since sewerall temples ware throwen doune, as that at Partenay, etc. For that effect they sent 4 of the Religion, the eminentest amongs them in the Province to the King wt a supplication. We had 3 preachings. We eated no flech that day for fear of giving occasion to the Papists to mock: we suped on a soup, fried egges, roosted chaistains, and apples wt peirs.

Sewerall schollers have made paction wt the Dewil, under the Proviso he would render them wery learned, which hath bein discovered. One at Tholouse gave his promise to the Dewil, which having confessed, they resolve to procede iudicially against him. Since the Dewil loves not iustic, they send a messenger to the place wheir they made the pact to cite him to compeir and answer. He not compairing they declaire him contumacious; and as they procede to condemn him as guilty, behold a horrid bruit about the hous and the obligation the lad had given him droops of the rigging[211] amongs the mids of the auditors. We fand the story called _funeste resemblance_ not il of the scholler in Lipswick University, who having killed on of his companions was put to flie, wheiron after a long peregrinatione he came to Coloigne, wheir to his misfortune was a young man whom he resembled so neir that theirs no man but he would take on for the other. This young man had ravished just at that same tyme a gentlewoman of great condition: now the Lawes of Germany, as also of France, permits to pershue a _Ravisseiur_, tho the women consent, if her parents contradict, criminelly for his life. On this our scholler Proclus is slain in the streets for him; together with what followes.

[211] Rooftree.

Thorow all Languedoc and Provence the olive tries is as common as the walnuts in Poictou: oranges thorow much of France and in seweral places China oranges. Lentils, the seeds rise and mile[212] growes abondantly towards Saumer: the Papists finds them wery delicate in caresme or Lent. Its wonderful to sie what some few degries laying neerer the sun fertilizes a country.

[212] Mil, millet.

France is a country that produceth abondantly all that the heart of man can desire, only they are obligded to fetch their spices (tho they furnish other countries wt saffran which growes in seweral places of Poictou, costes 15 livres the pound at the cheapest) from Arabia, their sugar from America and the Barbado Islands: yet wtout ether of the tuo they could live wery weill.

A man may live 10 years in France or he sy a French man drink their oune Kings health. Amongs on another they make not a boast to call him[213] _bougre, coquin, frippon_, etc. I have sein them in mockery drink to the King of Frances coachhorses health.

[213] _i. e_. think nothing of calling him.

The plumdamy, heir prunecuite,[214] they dry so in a furnace.

[214] Prune, dried plum.

About the end of Octobre the peasants brings in their fruits to Poictiers to sel, especially their Apples, and that in loadened chariots. The beggar wifes and stirrows[215] ware sure to be their, piking them furth in neiwfulles[216] on all sydes. I hav sein the peasents and them fall be ears thegither, the lads wt great apples would have given him sick a slap on the face that the cowll[217] would have bein almost like to greet; yet wt his rung[218] he would have given them a sicker neck herring[219] over the shoulders. I am sure that the halfe of them was stollen from many of them or they got them sold.

[215] Lads, boys.

[216] Handfuls.

[217] Fellow. See Jamieson's _Dict_, s.v. 'Coulie.'

[218] Staff.

[219] 'A smart wipe.' I have not traced the expression 'neck herring.'

When we have had occasion to tel the Frenchman what our Adwocats would get at a consultation, 10,20 crounes, whiles they could not but look on it as a abuse, and think that our Justice was wery badly regulate and constitute. Thorow France a Adwocat dare take no more than a _quartescus_[220] for a consultation, but for that he multiplies them; for a psisitians advice as much. Surely if it be enquired whose ablest to do it, France by 20 degries might be more prodigal this way then we are; but their are wiser. Theris above 200 Adwocats at Poictiers. Of these that gets not employment they say, he never lost a cause, whey, because he never plaid one. Also, that theirs not good intelligence betuixt the Jugde and him, whey, because they do not speak togither.

[220] Quart d'ecu, a silver coin, quarter of an écu. See
Introduction, p. xlii. The cardecue was a common coin in Scotland.

As to the privilege of primogeniture in France its thus, that the eldest carries away 2 parts of thrie: as, for instance, the father is a man of 15,000 livres a year, the eldest hath 10,000, the other 5000 goes amongs the cadets.

Al the Capital tounes of provinces of France are frie from Taille.[221]

[221] A tax on persons not noble or ecclesiastic or exempted.

The wood cannot be but wholesomer to dresse meat wt then our coall: also they impute the oftner contagions that happens in Brittain to the smook of our coall, which grossens and thickens et,[222] by consequence infectes the air, their wood smooking wery little.

[222] For 'it.'

The French cryes out against the wanity of our King who most be served by his subjects on their knees, since that the knees sould be keipt to God alone; as also their King more absolute then [he] tho not served so. Yea some have bein so impudent as to impute (count)[223] the murder of our late King (which 1000 tymes hath bein casten up to me) as a iust iudgement of God on them for their pride. I cannot forget whow satyrically they have told this, saying that the peaple of great Britain keip their Kings at their beck, at their pleasure not only to bereave them of their croune but also of their life. I endewored to show them that they understood not things aright, that the same had bein practicat in France on Henry the 4t: the cases are not indeed alike, since our King was brought to a Schaffold, the other slain be a Assasin, Ravelliak, and regretted. To make the case iump the better, I remitted them to ther History to sie wt what publick consent Henry 3d was slain be Clement the Jacobine, yet heir their was no iudiciall procedure as against our King. Whence I had recourse to Chilperick, whom the peaple, tho legittime heir, first deposed then cowed him, and thrust him in a Monastry surrogating Pepin his brother in his roome. This wexed them, they could never answer this sufficiently.

[223] Interlined.

Sewerall tymes in France persones have suffered because they had discovered some plot or conspiracy against the King or estat and could not prove it. The Law is the same wt us, tho it seimes to carry injustice. On all hands I am in danger: if I do not reveale it I am aequally guilty of the treason as the actors are; if I rewealle it, I am immediatly made prisoner, tortured to show all I know of it, put to prove what I say, in which if I failly I lose my life. What can a man do when he have no proofes? He most tho' reveall it and consequently lose his life; since after the truth sal appear and he sal be held be all to have died gloriously as a weill wisher to his country.

Its was strange of Cardinal Richelieu who know[224] all things that past thorow France as if he had bein present, and 2 of the most intimate sould not have spoken ill of him at Poictiers but he sould have knowen it or 4 dayes at Paris. Some imputed it to a familiar spirit he had, others to his spies he had every wheir. He was _toute en toute_ in France in his tyme.

[224] Lauder's way of spelling knew. Compare p. 98, slow for slew.

The French mock at our sweit sauses and sugared sallades. Their salt is a great deall better and more sawory then ours is. That which we parfait be the fire, which cannot but in some measure consume the strenth of its savorinesse, the sun denieng us it, they parfait be the sun. In Bearn or Navarre they make it be the fire as we do; but they make more cont of that which comes from the Rochel, which the Hollanders, Dans, and others carries in abondance then of their. On the place wheir they make it its sold for a sous marky[225] la livre, which costs at Poictiers 20 sous. In 2 heurs tyme the sun will converte a great ditch full of sea water unto upright salt: that they showle out, fills it again, and so in 3 moneth, May, Juin, July, they make more salt then the fire maks in 2 years in Scotland: and wt lesse cost and lesse pain. That our salt is whitter, its the effect of the fire, since they could render theirs as white but it sould lose so werie much of its savory. Their is a ile neir to that of St Christople which hath montaines of Salt. The sea casts in the water on the dry land and the sun convertes it immediatly, which beats their so violently that no corn can grow; it rises but its brunt or it come to the head. The sugar growes marvelously weill in it.

[225] _Sou marqué_. Copper coin worth fifteen deniers. That
was the value of the _sou parisis_. The _sou tournois_ was worth
twelve deniers.

The day before great fests, as _les Roys_[226] _Toussaints_, etc., their fellows that wt white surplices and a pigful[227] of holy water wt a spung in it goes thorow al the Catholick houses be-sprinkling the persons as also the house, and so sanctifieng them that the Dewil dare not enter their; passing by the Protestants houses as infected; or rather, as the Angel who smote the first born of the Egyptians past the Israelits. At _Toussaints_ al are in ther best cloaths.

[226] Epiphany.

[227] Jarful.