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Page 10
Was it knowledge of this passage, Master, or ignorance of everything else,
that made certain of the common steadfast dunces of our days speak of thee as
if thou hadst been a starveling, neglected poetaster, jealous forsooth, of
Maitre Francoys Rabelais? See how ignorantly M. Fleury writes, who teaches
French literature withal to them of Muscovy, and hath indited a Life of
Rabelais. 'Rabelais e'tait reve'tu d'un emploi honorable; Ronsard e'tait
traite' en subalterne,' quoth this wondrous professor. What! Pierre de
Ronsard, a gentleman of a noble house, holding the revenue of many abbeys, the
friend of Mary Stuart, of the Duc d'Orle'ans, of Charles IX., _he_ is
_traite' en subalterne_, and is jealous of a frocked or unfrocked _manant_
like Maitre Francoys! And then this amazing Fleury falls foul of thine epitaph
on Mai'tre Francoys and cries, 'Ronsard a voulu faire des vers me'chants; il
n'a fait que de me'chants vers.' More truly saith M. Sainte-Beuve, 'If the
good Rabelais had returned to Meudon on the day when this epitaph was made
over the wine, he would, methinks, have laughed heartily.' But what shall be
said of a Professor like the egregious M. Fleury, who holds that Ronsard was
despised at Court? Was there a party at tennis when the king would not fain
have had thee on his side, declaring that he ever won when Ronsard was his
partner? Did he not give thee benefices, and many priories, and call thee his
father in Apollo, and even, so they say, bid thee sit down beside him on his
throne? Away, ye scandalous folk, who tell us that there was strife between
the Prince of Poets and the King of Mirth. Naught have ye by way of proof of
your slander but the talk of Jean Bernier, a scurrilous, starveling
apothecary, who put forth his fables in 1697, a century and a half after
Mai'tre Francoys died. Bayle quoted this fellow in a note, and ye all steal
the tattle one from another in your dull manner, and know not whence it comes,
nor even that Bayle would none of it and mocked its author. With so little
knowledge is history written, and thus doth each chattering brook of a 'Life'
swell with its tribute 'that great Mississippi of falsehood,' Biography.
IV.
To Herodotus.
To Herodotus of Halicarnassus, greeting. --Concerning the matters set forth in
your histories, and the tales you tell about both Greeks and barbarians,
whether they be true, or whether they be false, men dispute not little but a
great deal. Wherefore I, being concerned to know the verity, did set forth to
make search in every manner, and came in my quest even unto the ends of the
earth. For there is an island of the Cimmerians beyond the Straits of
Heracles, some three days' voyage to a ship that hath a fair following wind in
her sails; and there it is said that men know many things from of old:
thither, then, I came in my inquiry. Now, the island is not small, but large,
greater than the whole of Hellas; and they call it Britain. In that island the
east wind blows for ten parts of the year, and the people know not how to
cover themselves from the cold. But for the other two months of the year the
sun shines fiercely, so that some of them die thereof, and others die of the
frozen mixed drinks; for they have ice even in the summer, and this ice they
put to their liquor. Through the whole of this island, from the west even to
the east, there flows a river called Thames: a great river and a laborious,
but not to be likened to the River of Egypt.
The mouth of this river, where I stepped out from my ship, is exceedingly foul
and of an evil savour by reason of the city on the banks. Now this city is
several hundred parasangs in circumference. Yet a man that needed not to
breathe the air might go round it in one hour, in chariots that run under the
earth; and these chariots are drawn by creatures that breathe smoke and
sulphur, such as Orpheus mentions in his 'Argonautica,' if it be by Orpheus.
The people of the town, when I inquired of them concerning Herodotus of
Halicarnassus, looked on me with amazement, and went straightway about their
business,--namely, to seek out whatsoever new thing is coming to pass all over
the whole inhabited world, and as for things old, they take no keep of them.
Nevertheless, by diligence I learned that he who in this land knew most
concerning Herodotus was a priest, and dwelt in the priests' city on the river
which is called the City of the Ford of the Ox. But whether Io, when she wore
a cow's shape, had passed by that way in her wanderings, and thence comes the
name of that city, I could not (though I asked all men I met) learn aught with
certainty. But to me, considering this, it seemed that Io must have come
thither. And now farewell to Io.
To the City of the Priests there are two roads: one by land; and one by water,
following the river. To a well-girdled man, the land journey is but one day's
travel; by the river it is longer but more pleasant. Now that river flows, as
I said, from the west to the east. And there is in it a fish called chub,
which they catch; but they do not eat it, for a certain sacred reason. Also
there is a fish called trout, and this is the manner of his catching. They
build far this purpose great dams of wood, which they call weirs. Having built
the weir they sit upon it with rods in their hands, and a line on the rod, and
at the end of the line a little fish. There then they 'sit and spin in the
sun,' as one of their poets says, not for a short time but for many days,
having rods in their hands and eating and drinking. In this wise they angle
for the fish called trout; but whether they ever catch him or not, not having
seen it, I cannot say; for it is not pleasant to me to speak things concerning
which I know not the truth.
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