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• Prefatory Note.
• Dedication. D. Erasmus Rot. to John Erasmius Froben, a Boy of Excellent Promise: Greeting.
• An Admonitory Note of Erasmus On the Tricks and Impostures of a Certain Dominican, Who Had Published In France the Colloquies of Erasmus Ridiculously Interpolated By Himself.
• Erasmus Roterodamus to the Divines of Louvain, His Dearly Beloved Brethren In the Lord, Greeting.
• The Preface.
• The Life of Erasmus.
• Courtesy In Saluting
• Family Discourse.
• Of Rash Vows.
• Of Benefice–hunters.
• Of a Soldier’s Life.
• The Commands of a Master.
• The School–master’s Admonitions.
• Of Various Plays.
• The Child’s Piety.
• The Art of Hunting.
• Scholastic Studies.
• The Profane Feast.
• The Religious Treat.
• The Apotheosis of Capnio.
• A Lover and Maiden.
• The Virgin Averse to Matrimony.
• The Penitent Virgin.
• The Uneasy Wife.
• The Soldier and Carthusian.
• Philetymus and Pseudocheus.
• The Shipwreck.
• Diversoria.
• The Young Man and Harlot.
• The Poetical Feast.
• An Enquiry Concerning Faith.
• The Old Mens Dialogue.
• The Franciscans, Πτωχοπλούσιοι, Or Rich Beggars.
• The Abbot and Learned Woman.
• The Epithalamium of Petrus Ægidius.
• The Exorcism Or Apparition.
• The Alchymist.
• The Horse–cheat.
• The Beggars Dialogue.
• The Fabulous Feast.
• The Lying–in Woman.

Such being the man’s style throughout, he has nevertheless not shrunk from interweaving his flowers with my crowns; either pleasing himself in a most senseless manner, or having a very ill opinion of the judgment of divines. For these things were composed for their benefit, all of whom he supposes to be such blockheads that they will not instantly detect the patch–work he has so awkwardly sewn together. So abjectly does he everywhere flatter France, Paris, the theologians, the Sorbonne, the Colleges, no beggar could be more cringing. Accordingly, if anything uncomplimentary seems to be said against the French, he transfers it to the British; or against Paris, he turns it off to London. He added some odious sayings as if coming from me, with the view of stirring up hatred against me amongst those by whom he is grieved to know me beloved. It is needless to dwell upon the matter. Throughout he curtails, makes additions, alterations after his fashion, like a sow smeared with mud, rolling herself in a strange garden, bespattering, disturbing, rooting up everything. Meanwhile, he does not perceive that the points made by me are quite lost. For example, when to one who says, ‘From a Dutchman you are turned into a Gaul,’* the answer is made, ‘What? was I a Capon then, when I went hence?’: he alters ‘From a Dutchman you are turned into a Briton. What? was I a Saxon, then, when I went hence?’ Again, when the same speaker had said, ‘Your garb shows that you are changed from a Batavian into a Gaul,’ he puts ‘Briton’ for ‘Gaul’; and when the speaker had replied, ‘I had rather that metamorphosis, than into a Hen,’ alluding to ‘Cock:’ he changed ‘Hen’ into ‘Bohemian.’ Presently, when there is a joke, ‘that he pronounces Latin in French style,’ he changes ‘French’ into ‘British,’ and yet allows the following to stand, ‘Then you will never make good verses, because you have lost your quantities’; and this does not apply to the British. Again, when my text reads, ‘What has happened to the Gauls’ (cocks) ‘that they should wage war with the Eagle?’ he thus spoils the joke, ‘What has happened to the pards, that they should go to war with the lilies? as if lilies were in the habit of going forth to war. Occasionally he does not perceive that what follows his alterations does not hang together with them. As in the very passage I had written, ‘Is Paris free from the plague?’ he alters, ‘Is London free†from the plague?’ Again, in another place, where one says, ‘Why are we afraid to cut up this capon?’ he changes ‘capon’ into ‘hare’; yet makes no alteration in what follows, ‘Do you prefer wing or leg?’ Forsooth, although he so kindly favours the Dominican interest that he desired to sit among the famous Commissaries: nevertheless he bears with equal mind a cruel attack on Scotus. For he made no change in what one says in my text, ‘I would sooner let the whole of Scotus perish than the books of one Cicero.’ But as these things are full of folly, so very many of the contents bear an equal malice joined to folly. A speaker in my text rallies his comrade, who, although of abandoned life, nevertheless puts faith in indulgentiary bulls. My Corrector makes the former confess that he, along with his master Luther, was of opinion that the Pope’s indulgences were of no value; presently he represents the same speaker as recanting and professing penitence for his error. And these he wants to appear my corrections. O wondrous Atlases of faith! This is just as if one should feign, by means of morsels dipped in blood, a wound in the human body, and presently, by removing what he had supplied, should cure the wound. In my text a boy says, ‘that the confession which is made to God is the best;’ he made a correction, asserting ‘that the confession which is made to the priest is the best.’ Thus did he take care for imperilled confession. I have referred to this one matter for the sake of example, although he frequently indulges in tricks of this kind. And these answer to the palinode (recantation) which he promises in my name in his forged preface. As if it were any man’s business to sing a palinode for another’s error; or as if anything that is said in that work of mine under any character whatever, were my own opinion. For it does not at all trouble me, that he represents a man not yet sixty, as burdened with old age. Formerly, it was a capital offence to publish anything under another man’s name; now, to scatter rascalities of this kind amongst the public, under the pretended name of the very man who is slandered, is the sport of divines. For he wishes to appear a divine when his matter cries out that he does not grasp a straw of theological science. I have no doubt but that yonder thief imposed with his lies upon his starved printer; for I do not think there is a man so mad as to be willing knowingly to print such ignorant trash. I ceased to wonder at the incorrigible effrontery of the fellow, after I learnt that he was a chick who once upon a time fell out of a nest at Berne, entirely ἐκ κακίστου κόρακος κάκιστον ὠόν. This I am astonished at, if the report is true: that there are among the Parisian divines those who pride themselves on having at length secured a man who by the thunderbolt of his eloquence is to break asunder the whole party of Luther and restore the church to its pristine tranquility. For he wrote also against Luther as I hear. And then the divines complain that they are slandered by me, who aid their studies in so many nightwatches; while they themselves willingly embrace monsters of this description, who bring more dishonour to the order of divines and even of monks, than any foe, however foul–mouthed, can do. He who has audacity for such an act as this,will not hesitate to employ fire or poison. And these things are printed at Paris, where it is unlawful to print even the Gospel, unless approved by the opinion of the faculty.

The LYING–IN WOMAN.

The Argument.

EUTRAPELUS, FABULLA.

EU.

Honest Fabulla, I am glad to see you; I wish you well.

Fa.

I wish you well heartily, Eutrapelus. But what’s the Matter more than ordinary, that you that come so seldom to see me, are come now? None of our Family has seen you this three Years.

I’ll tell you, as I chanced to go by the Door, I saw the Knocker (called a Crow) tied up in a white Cloth, I wondered what was the Matter.

Fa.

What! are you such a Stranger in this Country, as not to know that that’s a Token of a lying–in Woman in that House?

Eu.

Why, pray is it not a strange Sight to see a white Crow? But without jesting, I did know very well what was the Matter; but I could not dream, that you that are scarce sixteen, should learn so early the difficult Art of getting Children, which some can scarce attain before they are thirty.

Fa.

As you are Eutrapelus by Name, so you are by Nature.

Eu.

And so are you too. For Fabulla never wants a Fable. And while I was in a Quandary, Polygamus came by just in the Nick of Time.

Fa.

What he that lately buried his tenth Wife?

Eu.

The very same, but I believe you don’t know that he goes a courting as hotly as if he had lived all his Days a Batchelor. I ask’d him what was the Matter; he told me that in this House the Body of a Woman had been dissever’d. For what great Crime, says I? says he, If what is commonly reported be true, the Mistress of this House attempted to circumcise her Husband, and with that he went away laughing.

Fa.

He’s a mere Wag.

Eu.

I presently ran in a–Doors to congratulate your safe Delivery.

Fa.

Congratulate my safe Delivery if you will, Eutrapelus, you may congratulate my happy Delivery, when you shall see him that I have brought forth give a Proof of himself to be an honest Man.

Eu.

Indeed, my Fabulla, you talk very piously and rationally.

Fa.

Nay, I am no Body’s Fabulla but Petronius’s.

Eu.

Indeed you bear Children for Petronius alone, but you don’t live for him alone, I believe. But however, I congratulate you upon this, that you have got a Boy.

But why do you think it better to have a Boy than a Girl?

Eu.

Nay, but rather you Petronius’s Fabulla (for now I am afraid to call you mine) ought to tell me what Reason you Women have to wish for Boys rather than Girls?

Fa.

I don’t know what other People’s Minds are; at this Time I am glad I have a Boy, because so it pleased God. If it had pleased him best I should have had a Girl, it would have pleased me best too.

Eu.

Do you think God has nothing else to do but be a Midwife to Women in Labour?

Fa.

Pray, Eutrapelus, what should he do else, but preserve by Propagation, what he has founded by Creation?

Eu.

What should he do else good Dame? If he were not God, he’d never be able to do what he has to do. Christiernus King of Denmark, a religious Favourer of the Gospel, is in Exile. Francis, King of France, is a Sojourner in Spain. I can’t tell how well he may bear it, but I am sure he is a Man that deserves better Fortune. Charles labours with might and main to inlarge the Territories of his Monarchy. And Ferdinand is mightily taken up about his Affairs in Germany. And the Courtiers every where are almost Famished with Hunger after Money. The very Farmers raise dangerous Commotions, nor are deterred from their Attempts by so many Slaughters of Men, that have been made already. The People are for setting up an Anarchy, and the Church goes to Ruin with dangerous Factions. Christ’s seamless Coat is rent asunder on all Sides. God’s Vineyard is spoiled by more Boars than one. The Authority of the Clergy with their Tythes, the Dignity of Divines, the Majesty of Monks is in Danger: Confession nods, Vows stagger, the Pope’s Constitutions go to decay, the Eucharist is call’d in Question, and Antichrist is expected every Day, and the whole World seems to be in Travail to bring forth I know not what Mischief. In the mean Time the Turks overrun all where–e’er they come, and are ready to invade us and lay all waste, if they succeed in what they are about; p. 444 and do you ask what God has else to do? I think he should rather see to secure his own Kingdom in Time.

Fa.

Perhaps that which Men make the greatest Account of, seems to God of no Moment. But however, if you will, let us let God alone in this Discourse of ours. What is your Reason to think it is happier to bear a Boy than a Girl? It is the Part of a pious Person to think that best which God, who without Controversy is the best Judge, has given.

Eu.

And if God should give you but a Cup made of Crystal, would you not give him Thanks for it?

Fa.

Yes, I would.

Eu.

But what if he should give you one of common Glass, would you give him the like Thanks? But I’m afraid instead of comforting you, by this Discourse, I should make you uneasy.

Fa.

Nay, a Fabulla can be in no Danger of being hurt by a Fable. I have lain in now almost a Month, and I am strong enough for a Match at Wrestling.

Eu.

Why don’t you get out of your Bed then?

Fa.

The King has forbid me.

Eu.

What King?

Fa.

Nay a Tyrant rather.

Eu.

What Tyrant prithee?

Fa.

I’ll tell you in one Syllable. Custom (Mos).

Eu.

Alas! How many Things does that Tyrant exact beyond the Bounds of Equity? But let us go on to talk of our Crystal and our common Glass.

Fa.

I believe you judge, that a Male is naturally more excellent and strong than a Female.

Eu.

I believe they are.

Fa.

That is Mens Opinion. But are Men any Thing longer–liv’d than Women? Are they free from Distempers?

Eu.

No, but in the general they are stronger.

Fa.

But then they themselves are excell’d by Camels in Strength.

Eu.

But besides, the Male was created first.

Fa.

So was Adam before Christ. Artists use to be most exquisite in their later Performances.

Eu.

But God put the Woman under Subjection to the Man.

Fa.

It does not follow of Consequence, that he is the better because he commands, he subjects her as a Wife, and not purely as a Woman; and besides that he so puts the Wife under Subjection, that tho’ they have each of them Power over the other, he will have the Woman to be obedient to the Man, not as to the more excellent, but to the more fierce Person. Tell me, Eutrapelus, which is the weaker Person, he that yields to another, or he that is yielded to?

Eu.

I’ll grant you that, if you will explain to me, what Paul meant when he wrote to the Corinthians, that Christ was the Head of the Man, and Man the Head of the Woman; and again, when he said, that a Man was the Image and Glory of God, and a Woman the Glory of the Man.

Fa.

Well! I’ll resolve you that, if you answer me this Question, Whether or no, it is given to Men alone, to be the Members of Christ?

Eu.

God forbid, that is given to all Men and Women too by Faith.

Fa.

How comes it about then, that when there is but one Head, it should not be common to all the Members? And besides that, since God made Man in his own Image, whether did he express this Image in the Shape of his Body, or the Endowments of his Mind?

Eu.

In the Endowments of his Mind.

Fa.

Well, and I pray what have Men in these more excellent than we have? In both Sexes, there are many Drunkennesses, Brawls, Fightings, Murders, Wars, Rapines, and Adulteries.

Eu.

But we Men alone fight for our Country.

Fa.

And you Men often desert from your Colours, and run away like Cowards; and it is not always for the Sake of your Country, that you leave your Wives and Children, but for the Sake of a little nasty Pay; and, worse than Fencers at the Bear–Garden, you deliver up your Bodies to a slavish Necessity of being killed, or yourselves killing others. And now after all your Boasting of your warlike Prowess, there is none of you all, but if you had once experienced what it is to bring a Child into the World, would rather be placed ten Times in the Front of a Battle, than undergo once what we must so often. An Army does not always fight, and when it does, the whole Army is not always engaged. Such as you are set in the main Body, others are kept for Bodies of Reserve, and some are safely posted in the Rear; and lastly, many save themselves by surrendring, and some by running away. We are obliged to encounter Death, Hand to Hand.

Eu.

I have heard these Stories before now; but the Question is, Whether they are true or not?

Fa.

Too true.

Eu.

Well then, Fabulla, would you have me persuade your Husband never to touch you more? For if so, you’ll be secure from that Danger.

Fa.

In Truth, there is nothing in the World I am more desirious of, if you were able to effect it.

Eu.

If I do persuade him to it, what shall I have for my Pains?

Fa.

I’ll present you with half a Score dry’d Neats–Tongues.

Eu.

I had rather have them than the Tongues of ten Nightingales. Well, I don’t dislike the Condition, but we won’t make the Bargain obligatory, before we have agreed on the Articles.

Fa.

And if you please, you may add any other Article.

Eu.

That shall be according as you are in the Mind after your Month is up.

Fa.

But why not according as I am in the Mind now?

Eu.

Why, I’ll tell you, because I am afraid you will not be in the same Mind then; and so you would have double Wages to pay, and I double Work to do, of persuading and dissuading him.

Fa.

Well, let it be as you will then. But come on, shew me why the Man is better than the Woman.

Eu.

I perceive you have a Mind to engage with me in Discourse, but I think it more adviseable to yield to you at this Time. At another Time I’ll attack you when I have furnished myself with Arguments; but not without a Second neither. For where the Tongue is the Weapon that decides the Quarrel; seven Men are scarce able to Deal with one Woman.

Fa.

Indeed the Tongue is a Woman’s Weapon; but you Men are not without it neither.

Eu.

Perhaps so, but where is your little Boy?

Fa.

In the next Room.

Eu.

What is he doing there, cooking the Pot?

Fa.

You Trifler, he’s with his Nurse.

Eu.

What Nurse do you talk of? Has he any Nurse but his Mother?

Fa.

Why not? It is the Fashion.

Eu.

You quote the worst Author in the World, Fabulla, the Fashion; ’tis the Fashion to do amiss, to game, to whore, to cheat, to be drunk, and to play the Rake.

Fa.

My Friends would have it so; they were of Opinion I ought to favour myself, being young.

Eu.

But if Nature gives Strength to conceive, it doubtless gives Strength to give Suck too.

Fa.

That may be.

Eu.

Prithee tell me, don’t you think Mother is a very pretty Name?

Fa.

Yes, I do.

Eu.

And if such a Thing were possible, would you endure it, that another Woman should be call’d the Mother of your Child?

Fa.

By no Means.

Eu.

Why then do you voluntarily make another Woman more than half the Mother of what you have brought into the World?

Fa.

O fy! Eutrapelus, I don’t divide my Son in two, I am intirely his Mother, and no Body in the World else.

Eu.

Nay, Fabulla, in this Case Nature herself blames you to your Face. Why is the Earth call’d the Mother of all Things? Is it because she produces only? Nay, much rather, because she nourishes those Things she produces: that which is produced by Water, is fed by Water. There is not a living Creature or a Plant that grows on the Face of the Earth, that the Earth does not feed with its own Moisture. Nor is there any living Creature that does not feed its own Offspring. Owls, Lions, and Vipers, feed their own Young, and does Womankind make her Offspring Offcasts? Pray, what can be more cruel than they are, that turn their Offspring out of Doors for Laziness, not to supply them with Food?

Fa.

That you talk of is abominable.

Eu.

But Womankind don’t abominate it. Is it not a Sort of turning out of Doors, to commit a tender little Infant, yet reaking of the Mother, breathing the very Air of the Mother, imploring the Mother’s Aid and Help with its Voice, which they say will affect even a brute Creature, to a Woman perhaps that is neither wholsome in Body, nor honest, who has more Regard to a little Wages, than to your Child?

Fa.

But they have made Choice of a wholsome, sound Woman.

Eu.

Of this the Doctors are better Judges than yourself. But put the Case, she is as healthful as yourself, and more too; do you think there is no Difference between your little tender Infant’s sucking its natural and familiar Milk, and being cherish’d with Warmth it has been accustomed to, and its being forc’d to accustom itself to those of a Stranger? Wheat being sown in a strange Soil, degenerates into Oats or small Wheat. A Vine being transplanted into another Hill, changes its Nature. A Plant when it is pluck’d from its Parent Earth, withers, and as it were dies away, and does in a Manner the same when it is transplanted from its Native Earth.

Fa.

Nay, but they say, Plants that have been transplanted and grafted, lose their wild Nature, and produce better Fruit.

Eu.

But not as soon as ever they peep out of the Ground, p. 449 good Madam. There will come a Time, by the Grace of God, when you will send away your young Son from you out of Doors, to be accomplish’d with Learning and undergo harsh Discipline, and which indeed is rather the Province of the Father than of the Mother. But now its tender Age calls for Indulgence. And besides, whereas the Food, according as it is, contributes much to the Health and Strength of the Body, so more especially it is essential to take Care, with what Milk that little, tender, soft Body be season’d. For Horace’s Saying takes Place here. Quo semel est imbuta recens servabit odorem Testa diu. What is bred in the Bone, will never out of the Flesh.

Fa.

I don’t so much concern myself as to his Body, so his Mind be but as I would have it.

Eu.

That indeed is piously spoken, but not philosophically.

Fa.

Why not?

Eu.

Why do you when you shred Herbs, complain your Knife is blunt, and order it to be whetted? Why do you reject a blunt pointed Needle, when that does not deprive you of your Art?

Fa.

Art is not wanting, but an unfit Instrument hinders the exerting it.

Eu.

Why do they that have much Occasion to use their Eyes, avoid Darnel and Onions?

Fa.

Because they hurt the Sight.

Eu.

Is it not the Mind that sees?

Fa.

It is, for those that are dead see nothing. But what can a Carpenter do with an Ax whose Edge is spoiled?

Eu.

Then you do acknowledge the Body is the Organ of the Mind?

Fa.

That’s plain.

Eu.

And you grant that in a vitiated Body the Mind either cannot act at all, or if it does, it is with Inconvenience?

Fa.

Very likely.

Eu.

Well, I find I have an intelligent Person to deal with; suppose the Soul of a Man was to pass into the Body of a Cock, would it make the same Sound it does now?

No to be sure.

Eu.

What would hinder?

Fa.

Because it would want Lips, Teeth, and a Tongue, like to that of a Man. It has neither the Epiglottis, nor the three Cartilages, that are moved by three Muscles, to which Nerves are joined that come from the Brain; nor has it Jaws and Teeth like a Man’s.

Eu.

What if it should go into the Body of a Swine?

Fa.

Then it would grunt like a Swine.

Eu.

What if it should pass into the Body of a Camel?

Fa.

It would make a Noise like a Camel.

Eu.

What if it should pass into the Body of an Ass, as it happened to Apuleius?

Fa.

Then I think it would bray as an Ass does.

Eu.

Indeed he is a Proof of this, who when he had a Mind to call after Caesar, having contracted his Lips as much as he possibly could, scarce pronounced O, but could by no Means pronounce Caesar. The same Person, when having heard a Story, and that he might not forget it, would have written it, reprehended himself for his foolish Thought, when he beheld his solid Hoofs.

Fa.

And he had Cause enough.

Eu.

Then it follows that the Soul does not see well thro’ purblind Eyes. The Ears hear not clearly when stopped with Filth. The Brain smells not so well when oppressed with Phlegm. And a Member feels not so much when it is benumbed. The Tongue tastes less, when vitiated with ill Humours.

Fa.

These Things can’t be denied.

Eu.

And for no other Cause, but because the Organ is vitiated.

Fa.

I believe the same.

Eu.

Nor will you deny, I suppose, that sometimes it is vitiated by Food and Drink.

Fa.

I’ll grant that too, but what signifies that to the Goodness of the Mind?

Eu.

As much as Darnel does to a clear Eye–Sight.

Fa.

Because it vitiates the Organ.

Eu.

Well answer’d. But solve me this Difficulty: Why is it that one understands quicker than another, and has a better Memory; why is one more prone to Anger than another; or is more moderate in his Resentment?

Fa.

It proceeds from the Disposition of the Mind.

Eu.

That won’t do. Whence comes it that one who was formerly of a very ready Wit, and a retentive Memory, becomes afterwards stupid and forgetful, either by a Blow or a Fall, by Sickness or old Age?

Fa.

Now you seem to play the Sophister with me.

Eu.

Then do you play the Sophistress with me.

Fa.

I suppose you would infer, that as the Mind sees and hears by the Eyes and Ears, so by some Organs it also understands, remembers, loves, hates, is provoked and appeas’d?

Eu.

Right.

Fa.

But pray what are those Organs, and where are they situated?

Eu.

As to the Eyes, you see where they are.

Fa.

I know well enough where the Ears, and the Nose, and the Palate are; and that the Body is all over sensible of the Touch, unless when some Member is seized with a Numbness.

Eu.

When a Foot is cut off, yet the Mind understands.

Fa.

It does so, and when a Hand is cut off too.

Eu.

A Person that receives a violent Blow on the Temples, or hinder–Part of his Head, falls down like one that is dead, and is unsensible.

Fa.

I have sometimes seen that myself.

Eu.

Hence it is to be collected, that the Organs of the Will, Understanding, and Memory, are placed within the Skull, being not so crass as the Eyes and Ears, and yet are material, in as much as the most subtile Spirits that we have in the Body are corporeal.

Fa.

And can they be vitiated with Meat and Drink too?

Eu.

Yes.

Fa.

The Brain is a great Way off from the Stomach.

And so is the Funnel of a Chimney from the Fire–Hearth, yet if you sit upon it you’ll feel the Smoke.

Fa.

I shan’t try that Experiment.

Eu.

Well, if you won’t believe me, ask the Storks. And so it is of Moment what Spirits, and what Vapours ascend from the Stomach to the Brain, and the Organs of the Mind. For if these are crude or cold they stay in the Stomach.

Fa.

Pshaw! You’re describing to me an Alembick, in which we distil Simple–Waters.

Eu.

You don’t guess much amiss. For the Liver, to which the Gall adheres, is the Fire–Place; the Stomach, the Pan; the Scull, the Top of the Still; and if you please, you may call the Nose the Pipe of it. And from this Flux or Reflux of Humours, almost all Manner of Diseases proceed, according as a different Humour falls down after a different Manner, sometimes into the Eyes, sometimes into the Stomach, sometimes into the Shoulders, and sometimes into the Neck, and elsewhere. And that you may understand me the better, why have those that guzzle a great Deal of Wine bad Memories? Why are those that feed upon light Food, not of so heavy a Disposition? Why does Coriander help the Memory? Why does Hellebore purge the Memory? Why does a great Expletion cause an Epilepsy, which at once brings a Stupor upon all the Senses, as in a profound Sleep? In the last Place, as violent Thirst or Want weaken the Strength of Wit or Memory in Boys, so Food eaten immoderately makes Boys dull–headed, if we believe Aristotle; in that the Fire of the Mind is extinguish’d by the heaping on too much Matter.

Fa.

Why then, is the Mind corporeal, so as to be affected with corporeal Things?

Eu.

Indeed the Nature itself of the rational Soul is not corrupted; but the Power and Action of it are impeded by the Organs being vitiated, as the Art of an Artist will stand him in no Stead, if he has not Instruments.

Fa.

Of what Bulk, and in what Form is the Mind?

You ask a ridiculous Question, what Bulk and Form the Mind is of, when you have allow’d it to be incorporeal.

Fa.

I mean the Body that is felt.

Eu.

Nay, those Bodies that are not to be felt are the most perfect Bodies, as God and the Angels.

Fa.

I have heard that God and Angels are Spirits, but we feel the Spirit.

Eu.

The Holy Scriptures condescend to those low Expressions, because of the Dullness of Men, to signify a Mind pure from all Commerce of sensible Things.

Fa.

Then what is the Difference between an Angel and a Mind?

Eu.

The same that is between a Snail and a Cockle, or, if you like the Comparison better, a Tortoise.

Fa.

Then the Body is rather the Habitation of the Mind than the Instrument of it.

Eu.

There is no Absurdity in calling an adjunct Instrument an Habitation. Philosophers are divided in their Opinions about this. Some call the Body the Garment of the Soul, some the House, some the Instrument, and some the Harmony; call it by which of these you will, it will follow that the Actions of the Mind are impeded by the Affections of the Body. In the first Place, if the Body is to the Mind that which a Garment is to the Body, the Garment of Hercules informs us how much a Garment contributes to the Health of the Body, not to take any Notice of Colours of Hairs or of Skins. But as to that Question, whether one and the same Soul is capable of wearing out many Bodies, it shall be left to Pythagoras.

Fa.

If, according to Pythagoras, we could make Use of Change of Bodies, as we do of Apparel, it would be convenient to take a fat Body, and of a thick Texture, in Winter Time, and a thinner and lighter Body in Summer Time.

Eu.

But I am of the Opinion, that if we wore out our Body at last as we do our Cloaths; it would not be convenient; for so having worn out many Bodies, the Soul itself would grow old and die.

It would not truly.

Eu.

As the Sort of Garment that is worn hath an Influence on the Health and Agility of the Body, so it is of great Moment what Body the Soul wears.

Fa.

If indeed the Body is the Garment of the Soul, I see a great many that are dress’d after a very different Manner.

Eu.

Right, and yet some Part of this Matter is in our own Power, how conveniently our Souls shall be cloathed.

Fa.

Come, have done with the Garment, and say something concerning the Habitation.

Eu.

But, Fabulla, that what I say to you mayn’t be thought a Fiction, the Lord Jesus calls his Body a Temple, and the Apostle Peter calls his a Tabernacle. And there have been some that have call’d the Body the Sepulchre of the Soul, supposing it was call’d σωˆμα, as tho’ it were ση̂μα. Some call it the Prison of the Mind, and some the Fortress or fortify’d Castle. The Minds of Persons that are pure in every Part, dwell in the Temple. They whose Minds are not taken up with the Love of corporeal Things, dwell in a Tent, and are ready to come forth as soon as the Commander calls. The Soul of those that are wholly blinded with Vice and Filthiness, so that they never breathe after the Air of Gospel Liberty, lies in a Sepulchre. But they that wrestle hard with their Vices, and can’t yet be able to do what they would do, their Soul dwells in a Prison, whence they frequently cry out to the Deliverer of all, Bring my Soul out of Prison, that I may praise thy Name, O Lord. They who fight strenuously with Satan, watching and guarding against his Snares, who goes about as a roaring Lion, seeking whom he may devour; their Soul is as it were in a Garison, out of which they must not go without the General’s Leave.

Fa.

If the Body be the Habitation or House of the Soul, I see a great many whose Mind is very illy seated.

Eu.

It is so, that is to say, in Houses where it rains in, that are dark, exposed to all Winds, that are smoaky, damp, decay’d, and ruinous, and such as are filthy and infected: p. 455 and yet Cato accounts it the principal Happiness of a Man, to dwell handsomly.

Fa.

It were tolerable, if there was any passing out of one House into another.

Eu.

There’s no going out before the Landlord calls out. But tho’ we can’t go out, yet we may by our Art and Care make the Habitation of our Mind commodious; as in a House the Windows are changed, the Floor taken up, the Walls are either plaistered or wainscotted, and the Situation may be purified with Fire or Perfume. But this is a very hard Matter, in an old Body that is near its Ruin. But it is of great Advantage to the Body of a Child, to take the Care of it that ought to be taken presently after its Birth.

Fa.

You would have Mothers and Nurses to be Doctors.

Eu.

So indeed I would, as to the Choice and moderate Use of Meat, Drink, Motion, Sleep, Baths, Unctions, Frictions, and Cloathings. How many are there, think you, who are expos’d to grievous Diseases and Vices, as Epilepsies, Leanness, Weakness, Deafness, broken Backs, crooked Limbs, a weak Brain, disturbed Minds, and for no other Reason than that their Nurses have not taken a due Care of them?

Fa.

I wonder you are not rather a Franciscan than a Painter, who preach so finely.

Eu.

When you are a Nun of the Order of St. Clare, then I’ll be a Franciscan, and preach to you.

Fa.

In Truth, I would fain know what the Soul is, about which we hear so much, and talk of so often, and no Body has seen.

Eu.

Nay, every Body sees it that has Eyes.

Fa.

I see Souls painted in the Shape of little Infants, but why do they put Wings to them as they do to Angels?

Eu.

Why, because, if we can give any Credit to the Fables of Socrates, their Wings were broken by their falling from Heaven.

Fa.

How then are they said to fly up to Heaven?

Eu.

Because Faith and Charity make their Wings grow again. He that was weary of this House of his Body, begg’d p. 456 for these Wings, when he cry’d out, Who will give me the Wings of a Dove, that I may fly away, and be at rest. Nor has the Soul any other Wings, being incorporeal, nor any Form that can be beheld by the Eyes of the Body. But those Things that are perceiv’d by the Mind, are more certain. Do you believe the Being of God?

Fa.

Yes, I do.

Eu.

But nothing is more invisible than God.

Fa.

He is seen in the Works of Creation.

Eu.

In like Manner the Soul is seen in Action. If you would know how it acts in a living Body, consider a dead Body. When you see a Man Feel, See, Hear, Move, Understand, Remember and Reason, you see the Soul to be in him with more Certainty than you see this Tankard; for one Sense may be deceiv’d, but so many Proofs of the Senses cannot deceive you.

Fa.

Well then, if you can’t shew me the Soul, paint it out to me, just as you would the King, whom I never did see.

Eu.

I have Aristotle’s Definition ready for you.

Fa.

What is it? for they say he was a very good Decypherer of every Thing.

Eu.

The Soul is the Act of an Organical, Physical Body, having Life in Potentia.

Fa.

Why does he rather call it an Act than a Journey or Way?

Eu.

Here’s no Regard either to Coachmen or Horsemen, but a bare Definition of the Soul. And he calls the Form Act, the Nature of which is to act, when it is the Property of Matter to suffer. For all natural Motion of the Body proceeds from the Soul. And the Motion of the Body is various.

Fa.

I take that in; but why does he add of an Organical?

Eu.

Because the Soul does nothing but by the Help of Organs, that is, by the Instruments of the Body.

Fa.

Why does he say Physical?

Eu.

Because Dædalus made such a Body to no Purpose; and therefore he adds, having Life in Potentia. Form does not act upon every Thing; but upon a Body that is capable.

What if an Angel should pass into the Body of a Man?

Eu.

He would act indeed, but not by the natural Organs, nor would he give Life to the Body if the Soul was absent from it.

Fa.

Have I had all the Account that is to be given of the Soul?

Eu.

You have Aristotle’s Account of it.

Fa.

Indeed I have heard he was a very famous Philosopher, and I am afraid that the College of Sages would prefer a Bill of Heresy against me, if I should say any Thing against him; but else all that he has said concerning the Soul of a Man, is as applicable to the Soul of an Ass or an Ox.

Eu.

Nay, that’s true, or to a Beetle or a Snail.

Fa.

What Difference then is there between the Soul of an Ox, and that of a Man?

Eu.

They that say the Soul is nothing else but the Harmony of the Qualities of the Body, would confess that there was no great Difference; and that this Harmony being interrupted, the Souls of both of them do perish. The Soul of a Man and an Ox is not distinguished; but that of an Ox has less Knowledge than the Soul of a Man. And there are some Men to be seen that have less Understanding than an Ox.

Fa.

In Truth, they have the Mind of an Ox.

Eu.

This indeed concerns you, that according to the Quality of your Guittar, your Musick will be the sweeter.

Fa.

I own it.

Eu.

Nor is it of small Moment of what Wood, and in what Shape your Guittar is made.

Fa.

Very true.

Eu.

Nor are Fiddle–Strings made of the Guts of every Animal.

Fa.

So I have heard.

Eu.

They grow slack or tight by the Moisture and Driness of the circumambient Air, and will sometimes break.

Fa.

I have seen that more than once.

On this Account you may do uncommon Service to your little Infant, that his Mind may have an Instrument well tempered, and not vitiated, nor relaxed by Sloth, nor squeaking with Wrath, nor hoarse with intemperate drinking. For Education and Diet oftentimes impress us with these Affections.

Fa.

I’ll take your Counsel; but I want to hear how you can defend Aristotle.

Eu.

He indeed in general describes the Soul, Animal, Vegetative, and Sensitive. The Soul gives Life, but every Thing that has Life is not an Animal. For Trees live, grow old, and die; but they have no Sense; tho’ some attribute to them a stupid Sort of Sense. In Things that adhere one to another, there is no Sense to be perceived, but it is found in a Sponge by those that pull it off. Hewers discover a Sense in Timber–Trees, if we may believe them: For they say, that if you strike the Trunk of a Tree that you design to hew down, with the Palm of your Hand, as Wood–Mongers use to do, it will be harder to cut that Tree down because it has contracted itself with Fear. But that which has Life and Feeling is an Animal. But nothing hinders that which does not feel, from being a Vegetable, as Mushrooms, Beets, and Coleworts.

Fa.

If they have a Sort of Life, a Sort of Sense, and Motion in their growing, what hinders but that they may be honoured with the Title of Animals?

Eu.

Why the Antients did not think fit to call them so, and we must not deviate from their Ordinances, nor does it signify much as to what we are upon.

Fa.

But I can’t bear the Thoughts on’t, that the Soul of a Beetle and of a Man should be the same.

Eu.

Good Madam, it is not the same, saving in some Respects; your Soul animates, vegetates, and renders your Body sensible; the Soul of the Beetle animates his Body: For that some Things act one Way, and some another, that the Soul of a Man acts differently from the Soul of a Beetle, partly proceeds from the Matter; a Beetle neither sings nor speaks, because it wants Organs fit for these Actions.

Why then you say, that if the Soul of a Beetle should pass into the Body of a Man, it would act as the human Soul does.

Eu.

Nay, I say not, if it were an angelical Soul: And there is no Difference between an Angel and a human Soul, but that the Soul of a Man was formed to act a human Body compos’d of natural Organs; and as the Soul of a Beetle will move nothing but the Body of a Beetle, an Angel was not made to animate a Body, but to be capable to understand without bodily Organs.

Fa.

Can the Soul do the same Thing?

Eu.

It can indeed, when it is separated from the Body.

Fa.

Is it not at its own Disposal, while it is in the Body?

Eu.

No indeed, except something happen beside the common Course of Nature.

Fa.

In Truth, instead of one Soul you have given me a great many; an animal, a vegetative, a sensitive, an intelligent, a remembring, a willing, an angry, and desiring: One was enough for me.

Eu.

There are different Actions of the same Soul, and these have different Names.

Fa.

I don’t well understand you.

Eu.

Well then, I’ll make you understand me: You are a Wife in the Bed–Chamber, in your Work–Shop a Weaver of Hangings, in your Warehouse a Seller of them, in your Kitchen a Cook, among your Servants a Mistress, and among your Children a Mother; and yet you are all these in the same House.

Fa.

You philosophize very bluntly. Is then the Soul so in the Body as I am in my House?

Eu.

It is.

Fa.

But while I am weaving in my Work–Shop, I am not cooking in my Kitchen.

Eu.

Nor are you all Soul, but a Soul carrying about a Body, and the Body can’t be in many Places at the same Time; but the Soul being a simple Form, is so in the whole Body, tho’ it does not act the same in all Parts of the Body, nor after the same Manner, how differently affected soever they are: For it understands and remembers in the Brain, it is angry in the Heart, it lusts in the Liver, it hears with the Ears, sees with the Eyes, smells with the Nose, it tastes in the Palate and Tongue, and feels in all Parts of the Body which are adjoined to any nervous Part: But it does not feel in the Hair, nor the Ends of the Nails; neither do the Lungs feel of themselves, nor the Liver, nor perhaps the Milt neither.

Fa.

So that in certain Parts of the Body it only animates and vegetates.

Eu.

It should seem so.

Fa.

If one and the same Soul does all these Things in one and the same Man, it follows of Consequence, that the Fœtus in the Womb of the Mother, both feels and understands, as soon as it begins to grow; which is a Sign of Life, unless a Man in his Formation has more Souls than one, and afterwards the rest giving Place, one acts all. So that at first a Man is a Plant, then an Animal, and lastly a Man.

Eu.

Perhaps Aristotle would not think what you say absurd: I think it is more probable, that the rational Soul is infus’d with the Life, and that like a little Fire that is buried as it were under too great a Quantity of green Wood, it cannot exert its Power.

Fa.

Why then is the Soul bound to the Body that it acts and moves?

Eu.

No otherwise than a Tortoise is bound or tied to the Shell that he carries about.

Fa.

He does move it indeed; but so at the same Time that he moves himself too, as a Pilot steers a Ship, turning it which Way he will, and is at the same Time mov’d with it.

Eu.

Ay, and as a Squirrel turns his Wheel–Cage about, and is himself carried about with it.

Fa.

And so the Soul affects the Body, and is affected by the Body.

Eu.

Yes indeed, as to its Operations.

Fa.

Why then, as to the Nature of it, the Soul of a Fool is equal to the Soul of Solomon.

Eu.

There’s no Absurdity in that.

Fa.

And so the Angels are equal, in as much as they are without Matter, which, you say, is that which makes the Inequality.

Eu.

We have had Philosophy enough: Let Divines puzzle themselves about these Things; let us discourse of those Matters that were first mentioned. If you would be a compleat Mother, take Care of the Body of your little Infant, so that after the little Fire of the Mind has disengaged itself from the Vapours, it may have sound and fit Organs to make Use of. As often as you hear your Child crying, think this with yourself, he calls for this from me. When you look upon your Breasts, those two little Fountains, turgid, and of their own Accord streaming out a milky Juice, remember Nature puts you in Mind of your Duty: Or else, when your Infant shall begin to speak, and with his pretty Stammering shall call you Mammy, How can you hear it without blushing? when you have refus’d to let him have it, and turn’d him off to a hireling Nipple, as if you had committed him to a Goat or a Sheep. When he is able to speak, what if, instead of calling you Mother, he should call you Half–Mother? I suppose you would whip him: Altho’ indeed she is scarce Half a Mother that refuses to feed what she has brought into the World. The nourishing of the tender Babe is the best Part of Geniture: For he is not only fed by the Milk, but with the Fragrancy of the Body of the Mother. He requires the same natural, familiar, accustomed Moisture, that he drew in when in her Body, and by which he received his Coalition. And I am of that Opinion, that the Genius of Children are vitiated by the Nature of the Milk they suck, as the Juices of the Earth change the Nature of those Plants and Fruits that it feeds. Do you think there is no Foundation in Reason for this Saying, He suck’d in this ill Humour with the Nurse’s Milk? Nor do I think the Greeks spoke without Reason, when they said like Nurses, when they would intimate that any one was starved at Nurse: For they put a little of what they chew into the Child’s p. 462 Mouth, but the greatest Part goes down their own Throats. And indeed she can hardly properly be said to bear a Child, that throws it away as soon as she has brought it forth; that is to miscarry, and the Greek Etymology of Μήτηρ from μὴ τηρεɩ̂ν, i. e. from not looking after, seems very well to suit such Mothers. For it is a Sort of turning a little Infant out of Doors, to put it to a hireling Nurse, while it is yet warm from the Mother.

Fa.

I would come over to your Opinion, unless such a Woman were chosen, against whom there is nothing to be objected.

Eu.

Suppose it were of no Moment what Milk the little Infant suck’d, what Spittle it swallow’d with its chew’d Victuals; and you had such a Nurse, that I question whether there is such an one to be found; do you think there is any one in the World will go through all the Fatigue of Nursing as the Mother herself; the Bewrayings, the Sitting up a Nights, the Crying, the Sickness, and the diligent Care in looking after it, which can scarce be enough. If there can be one that loves like the Mother, then she will take Care like a Mother. And besides, this will be the Effect of it, that your Son won’t love you so heartily, that native Affection being as it were divided between two Mothers; nor will you have the same Affection for your Son: So that when he is grown up, he will neither be so obedient to you, nor will you have the same Regard for him, perhaps perceiving in him the Disposition of his Nurse. The principal Step to Advancement in Learning, is the mutual Love between the Teacher and Scholar: So that if he does not lose any Thing of the Fragrancy of his native good Temper, you will with the greater Ease be able to instil into him the Precepts of a good Life. And a Mother can do much in this Matter, in that she has pliable Matter to work upon, that is easy to to be carried any Way.

Fa.

I find it is not so easy a Thing to be a Mother, as it is generally looked upon to be.

Eu.

If you can’t depend upon what I say, St. Paul, speaking p. 463 very plainly of Women, says, She shall be saved in Child–bearing.

Fa.

Are all the Women saved that bear Children?

Eu.

No, he adds, if she continue in the Faith. You have not performed the Duty of a Mother before you have first formed the little tender Body of your Son, and after that his Mind, equally soft, by a good Education.

Fa.

But it is not in the Power of the Mother that the Children should persevere in Piety.

Eu.

Perhaps it may not be; but a careful Admonition is of that Moment, that Paul accounts it imputable to Mothers, if the Children degenerate from Piety. But in the last Place, if you do what is in your Power, God will add his Assistance to your Diligence.

Fa.

Indeed Eutrapelus, your Discourse has persuaded me, if you can but persuade my Parents and my Husband.

Eu.

Well, I’ll take that upon me, if you will but lend your helping Hand.

Fa.

I promise you I will.

Eu.

But mayn’t a Body see this little Boy?

Fa.

Yes, that you may and welcome. Do you hear, Syrisca, bid the Nurse bring the Child.

Eu.

’Tis a very pretty Boy. It is a common Saying, there ought to be Grains of Allowance given to the first Essay: But you upon the first Trial have shewn the very highest Pitch of Art.

Fa.

Why, it is not a Piece of carved Work, that so much Art should be required.

Eu.

That’s true; but it is a Piece of cast Work. Well, let that be how it will, it is well performed. I wish you could make as good Figures in the Hangings that you weave.

Fa.

But you on the Contrary paint better than you beget.

Eu.

It so seems meet to Nature, to act equally by all. How solicitous is Nature, that nothing should be lost! It has represented two Persons in one; here’s the Nose and Eyes of the Father, the Forehead and Chin of the Mother p. 464 Can you find in your Heart to entrust this dear Pledge to the Fidelity of a Stranger? I think those to be doubly cruel that can find in their Hearts so to do; because in doing so, they do not only do this to the Hazard of the Child; but also of themselves too; because in the Child, the spoiling of the Milk oftentimes brings dangerous Diseases, and so it comes about, that while Care is taken to preserve the Shape of one Body, the Lives of two Bodies are not regarded; and while they provide against old Age coming on too early, they throw themselves into a too early Death. What’s the Boy’s Name?

Fa.

Cornelius.

Eu.

That’s the Name of his Grand–Father by the Father’s Side. I wish he may imitate him in his umblemished Life and good Manners.

Fa.

We will do our Endeavour what in us lies. But, hark ye, Eutrapelus, here is one Thing I would earnestly entreat of you.

Eu.

I am entirely at your Service; command what you will, I will undertake it.

Fa.

Well then, I won’t discharge you till you have finished the good Service that you have begun.

Eu.

What’s that?

Fa.

First of all, to give me Instructions how I may manage my Infant, as to his Health, and when he is grown up, how I may form his Mind with pious Principles.

Eu.

That I will readily do another Time, according to my Ability; but that must be at our next Conversation: I will now go and prevail upon your Husband and Parents.

Fa.

I wish you may succeed.

END OF VOL. I.

NOTES. VOL. I.

The earlier pieces appear like copies from a Latin exercise-book. Such in fact they were; and Erasmus says in a letter dated 1536, that they were not written with a view to publication. “Some were youthful exercises for the improvement of style; others were dictated as I walked up and down, thinking of nothing less than of publication. Some were written for the benefit of backward pupils. Of this kind were the Colloquies, which one Helenius obtained,—I know not how, for I never had a copy by me—and sold at a high price to John Froben, pretending there were other printers who wanted to buy them.”

robert roberts, printer, boston.

[* ]Gallus: meaning also a Cock.

[† ]Immunis instead of immune agreeing with Londinum.

The Muses love Intermission45

Lit., “love alternate strains.” Quotation from Virgil, Ecl. iii. 59.

The seldomer Pleasures are made use of, the pleasanter they are45

Voluptates commendat rarior usus. Hor.

Poorer than Job52

“Barer than a serpent’s slough” in the original. A Greek proverb. The Latins have “Poorer than Irus,” “Poorer than Codrus.”

You have not lost all your Cost and Labour, as the Saying is53

“Your oil and trouble” in the original. An adage borrowed from the palaestra, or wrestling school, where the wrestlers prepared for exercise by anointing themselves. See Plaut. Poen. i. 2. 119. Cic. Att. ii. 17.

Pallas and Moria53

Pallas: an allusion to Homer, who frequently introduces Pallas as an inspiring divinity. Moria: Folly.

Stress of his Salvation55

Lit., “Prow and Poop of his salvation.” A Greek proverb for the beginning and end, sum and substance of a matter. Analogous is “I am the Alpha and the Omega.”

I had no Success58

A very tame paraphrase of “Delia parum favit.” “Delia showed me scant favour.” For Delia is a surname of Artemis (Diana), the divine huntress.

A ravenous (lit., gaping) Wolf58

A current expression in the comic poets for hungry avariciousness, suggested by the idea of an open-mouthed, panting wolf, disappointed of his prey. There is an allusion to the meaning of the word Pamphagus, all-devouring.

Asse Budæi60

A noted work of William Buda, or Budæus, 1467–1540. He was at one time a friend and correspondent of Erasmus, and was employed by Francis I. to invite him to Paris. They were generally regarded as rivals in scholarship.

I know your waggish Tricks, etc.60

Lit., “I know your nose. My nose is nothing compared with yours.” The nose was a symbol of sagacity and of satirical wit in the Roman satirists.

So may your Cap stand always upon your Head60

The play on the “head” is missed. It should be: “So may your cap stand always on its head,” i.e., upside down.

A Mercury. A Vulcan62

Alluding to the Homeric representations of Vulcan as limping, and of Mercury as the winged messenger of Jove.

The Prophet who calls Sin Lead62

See Jer. vi. 29; Ezek. xxii. 18.

She’ll read me a Juniper Lecture64

The original is far more witty: “No sweet encomium will she warble to me, coming home all stripped as I do.” The encomium (from κωˆμος, cômus) was originally the festive song of the Bacchic revel. It afterwards obtained the transitional meaning of a triumphal ode in honour of a conqueror; the word is frequently so used by Pindar. Analogous is panegyric, originally denoting a set speech in laudation of victors, pronounced at a πανήγυρις, (panegyris), or national festive assembly of the Greeks.

Christopher a sure Card65

Lit., “That charcoal Christopher was by no means a figwood help, as they say.” The worthless quality of the wood (Hor., inutile lignum) gave rise among the Greeks to the expressions fig-men (like our men of straw), figsophists, good-for-nothing fellows. Hence, “Not worth a fig;” “a fig for your opinions,” etc.

Like to like66

Lit., “For fear of like lips not having like lettuces.” One of the numerous adages on likeness and congruency. As the ass feeds on thistles, so soft lips like soft food.

A good bold Face76

The rendering of perfricta frons. a current Latin phrase of beautiful suggestiveness. “A scrubbed forehead,” from which shame has therefore been obliterated.

Let Nets alone77

A play in the original on Reticulum, a Net, the name for Tennis.

A Fill-up77

A fillip with the thumb and finger. Something might be said by a moralizer, on the brutality of many boyish characters, as illustrated in the proposal to make the reward of the winner to consist in the privilege to inflict pain on the loser.

I’ll hit it if it comes near me78

Much more lively is the original: “Not a fly shall wing by me scatheless.”

A Rowland for an Oliver78

This famous saying is founded on a legend of two of Charlemagne’s knights, who were so equally matched that neither could gain an advantage over the other in trials of strength and bravery.

You reckon your Chickens before they are hatch’d79

“You sing the triumph (the encomial song, as explained above) before the victory.” A Greek proverb. Another, of the more vulgar order, on the same subject, is: “The hasty bitch brings forth blind pups.”

You have met with your Match80

Lit., “You provoke the horse into the plain.” A Greek proverb for the challenging to a contest of a stronger competitor. With a slight difference, Plato says that provoking Socrates to disputation is like challenging horsemen into the plain. Theaet. 183 D. Adolphus replies, “And you shall feel that I am no donkey.”

Now, Cock, crow81

Another stock-pun on Gallus, which means both Frenchman and Cock. Both Cock and Cuckoo are imitative (onomato-poetic) words, from the throat-sounds emitted by those birds. The Greek has a verb κοκκύζω (Latin, coccysare) which applies to the note of both.

Er. Do you go first, etc.82

The elegance of the original is missed: “Do you be Prior if you will; I had rather be Abbot.”

A Victory, when Odds is taken82

Lit., “a precarious victory.” A word of interesting association. A precarious success was one dependent on prayer to the gods; hence doubtful, uncertain. What an unconscious irony on popular religion!

The more learned knave83

An allusion to an anecdote in Diogenes Laertius: a philosopher, seeing one performing a lascivious dance, said, “The better you do it, the worse you will do.” The better artist, the worse man.

Fulness of Belly83

“The Belly’s ballast makes the body heavy” (original) would be more vigorous.

That the Ghosts play84

The allusion is to the Empusa (Ἔμπουσα) or one-footed she-hobgoblin, introduced in several places of Aristophanes.

Whirly-bats84

The caestus, or boxing-glove of the Romans, consisting of thongs with metal bullets, wound around hand and arm. The fearful pugilistic combat of Dares and Entellus (Virg. Aen. v.) is referred to.

With a Bow101

Cic. de Divinat, ii.

I’ll be conformable101

Lit., “a man of all hours” (Quintilian and Suetonius), one that is of pliant disposition, ready for any company and for all moods, “from grave to gay, from lively to severe.”

Scotus and the Schoolmen109

Lit., “and his fellows of this meal (or flour),” i.e., of the same quality. The colloquialism “of the same baking (or batch)” is sometimes heard amongst us; as also “of the same kidney;” the latter word being doubtless a corruption of Kuynde, kind or species.

To set a Day for my Friends112

For dicere diem was a phrase conveying the unpleasant meaning to Roman ears of appointing the day on which a legal summons was to be answered in Court.

Sybaritical Appointment112

Sybaris, the Greek town in Southern Italy, was an absolute by-word among both Greeks and Romans for luxury and debauchery. It will be some time before Sybarite dies out of modern use. The tendency to associate particular vices or virtues with places is a curious antiquarian fact, but the connexion appears to be rather accidental than real. Of how many towns in England has it not been recorded in old sayings that the people are proud, or silly, or stingy, etc.? Many will recall the old Latin distich which gives pretty girls to Bruges, learned men to Ghent, fools to Mechlin, etc.

Umbra113

The play is on the three meanings of this word: (1) generally, a shadow; (2) the shade or ghost of a departed person; (3) like the Greek σκιά, an uninvited guest, whom one invited brings with him. Hor. Sat. ii. 8, 22; Pers. ii. 4, 27.

My left Hand115

We still speak significantly of what is sinister, or left-handed. The notion appears to have originated in the awkwardness of the left hand; and awkwardness associates itself with unluckiness and with moral badness. The country people still speak of an “awkward” or “unlucky” fellow in a morally bad sense. But it is curious that with the Romans sinister also conveyed the directly opposite meaning; for in augury the face was turned to the South, and good omens came from the East or left hand.

Scholars Commons119

Lit., “Pythagorean,” consisting of vegetables and fruits.

A Grasshopper to live upon Dew122

A fact of natural history, according to Pliny! lib. 11, cap. 26.

The sumptuary Laws. The Fannian Law122

Various laws of the Roman Republic passed to restrain private luxury and extravagance. The Fannian was passed B.C. 61, and limited specifically the expenses of various feasts.

Asots123

Not a proper name, but that of a class. An ἄσωτος in Greek means literally one without soundness or salvation, an accursed one, a profligate. Our word sot has no etymological connexion with this; I suppose it is to be traced to seethe, sodden.

The Satyrist128

Satyrist is a mis-spelling. Satire has nothing to do with Satyrs; it is from Satura, an olio, or hotch-potch.

The Catian School128

Catius is the “learned” gastronome of Horace’s satire on the devotees of the table, ii. 4, 88.

The Comedian130

Terence.

That expression of the Satyrist, etc131

The line is from Juvenal, vii. 111: “then his hollow windbags breathe forth unmeasured lies.”

The most elegant Poet132

Virgil, Georg. i. 145.

Pliny tells us, etc.132

This seems to be an imperfect recollection of Pliny, Lib. ii. cap. 37.

White Hares feed on Snow133

Ib., Lib. viii. cap. 55.

Austin, pray take Care of that Lady, etc133

Lit., “that Nymph.” He means that Austin is to mix more wine with his water.

Dryer than Furius’s Mother-in-Law, upon whom, etc133

See Catull. Carm. 23. Not quite correctly rendered. The jests are broken upon Furius himself as one of an interesting family, who are described as being hard as wood or flint, drier than horn, than heat, or cold, or hunger, etc. Readers may consult Mr. Robinson Ellis’s masterly edition of Catullus.

Gallus134

This seems to be the punster’s hobby-horse, and is ridden to death. The three meanings here are: (1) Gallus Cybeles, (2) Gallus Gallinaceus, a poultry-cock; (2) Gallus Gallaceus, the latter being a word invented for the occasion, from Galla, a Frenchwoman, like Gallinaceus, from gallina, a hen. Austin says presently, “I have had to do with French women.”

Goose’s Liver134

See Pliny, lib. x. cap. 22, an amusing passage. The delicacy is still appreciated in the form of “Strasburg pies.”

I have spent much Study142

Lit., “much lucubration,” or work by lamp-light; nightwork.

Jupiter hybernas, etc.154

The line is ascribed to one Furius Bibaculus, whom Horace ridicules for his absurd images: “Jupiter spat white snow on the wintry Alps.”

Cicero . . . . vy’d with Roscius, etc.155

See Macrobius, lib. ii. Satur. cap. 13.

I do not fly to all164

An allusion to the Athenian belief in the good omen of the flight of the owl, sacred to Athene. See above, p. 383.

Estridge166

Ostrich.

The King himself has not such a Seat167

Lit., “You surpass even Alcinous himself,” alluding to the famous gardens of that king in the Odyssey.

A dish of Beets, without either Pepper, etc.170

Alluding to Martial’s epigram on the insipidity of the root. (xiii. 13.)

• Ut sapiant fatuae fabrorum prandia betae,
• O quam saepe petet vina piperque cocus!

A Tarpaulin170

A Sailor.

Hit the Nail on the Head174

Lit., “You have touched the matter not with a needle, as they say, but with your tongue.” Rem acu tetigisti, Plautus, Rud, v. 2, 19: for one who exactly touches the very point in question.

And so conclude174

Lit., “Then the catastrophe of the play.”

In Wine there’s Truth178

A well-hammered proverb. Herodotus: “As the wine sinks down, words swim atop.” Plutarch: “What’s in the heart of the sober is on the tongue of the drunkard.” Atheanæus has it simply: “Wine and Truth.” Theognis: “As gold and silver are tried by fire, so wine reveals the mind of a man.” Euripides: “The mirror of the form is of bronze, but that of the mind is wine.” Some modern forms are: “Wine is a turn-coat; first a friend, then an enemy.” “Wine neither keeps secrets nor fulfils promises.” “Wine washeth off the daub.” “Wine wears no breeches.”

We call him Lord, because he hath redeemed us by his holy blood from the Tyranny of the Devil196

The prevalent theory of the Atonement among the Fathers was that the life of Christ was a ransom-price paid to the Devil as a means of man’s release from spiritual bondage.

Presents196

It was an ancient custom among Greeks and Romans to distribute apophoreta (lit., things carried away) or presents among the guests at the close of an entertainment. Thus Martial elegantly styles his 14th book of Epigrams Apophoreta.

Heliogabalus196

One of the many practical jokes recorded of this moral monstrosity. Another was, to invite a number of poor guests to a banquet, seat them on wind-bags, which suddenly let them down and left them a prey to wild beasts.

True as the Gospel204

“A Sibyll’s leaf” in original: alluding to the prophecies of the famous Cumæan Sibyll, written on leaves. “Credite me vobis folium recitare Sibyllæ?”—Juv.

I’ll set him in Gold in my little Chapel, among the choicest of my Saints208

Lit., “He shall stand in gold in my Lararium, among the select deities.” The Lararium was the sanctuary in a Roman household, where the images of the Lares or tutelar deities were placed. The “select” deities among the Romans were twenty in number, comprising the principal gods and goddesses of the Pantheon. Another graft from Paganism on the customs of the Christian Church.

Catherine of Sien208

She is said to have vowed perpetual celibacy at the age of eight! and to have written some fanatical things. Pius II. (Æneas Sylvius Piccolomini) was himself from Sienna. Catherine died 1380; Pius II. succeeded to the chair 1458. It is clear what was Erasmus’s opinion of this kind of saintship.

Fare you well too. . . . I will fare well, but not be a Cook209

This is a jest founded on the identity of sound, as formerly pronounced of quoque, too, and coce, the vocative of cocus, cook. Thereby hangs the following tale: Quintilian, in his 6th book (on Laughter) relates that a certain candidate for office, who was supposed to be the son of a cook, having solicited a man for his vote in Cicero’s presence, the latter said: “Ego quoque (coce) tibi favebo.” “I also (I O cook) will favour you.” This would be retailed about the forum and the sacred way as Cicero’s “last!” The pun is about on a level with that of Horace on a man named Rex; both calculated to produce solemnity rather than laughter in the modern mind!

Beef without Pepper or Vinegar211

See above, p. 395.

Undeniable Arguments212

Lit., “Achillean Arguments,” i. e. irresistible as the hero.

By all your Grammar214

“Before the Areiopagitic Grammarians.” The point lies in the fact that the Areiopagus was the highest judicial court at Athens.

By logic then214

“Before the Amphictyonic Dialecticians.” The allusion being to the great Grecian Council of the Amphictyones. As it was composed of various nations, so the dialecticians are divided into various schools.

The Grand Elixir215

The word and the idea are derived from the Arabic, the Arabs who spread along the coasts of the Mediterranean from the middle of the 7th century being the great “scientists” of the Middle Ages. From the same source comes the “Philosopher’s stone.” The word in the original is Panacea, Greek for universal remedy.

Thunderbolts. Trident. Spear215

The emblems of Jupiter, Neptune, and Pallas respectively.

A little too hasty224

Lit., “So far your harvest is in the blade.” Ovid, H. xvii. 263.

This sweet Ball224

A pastille, which means here an aromatic globe to be carried in the hand. They were much in use in Erasmus’s time as antidotes to the fearful smells that abounded indoors and out. Also termed pomanders.

What a Torment Love is228

“What a Cross” in original. It occurs in Plautus and Terence as a synonyme for a tormentor; as also the frequent expression, in malam crucem! analogous to Go and be hanged! The allusion is, of course, to the Roman punishment of crucifixion.

Swearing and cursing like a Foot-Soldier244

This is a heightening touch, added by the translator. “Swear like a trooper,” is more familiar. Probably the proverb came into use towards the close of the Middle Ages, and refers to the swaggering and violent style of the mercenary troops which then began to be employed.

A Woman of Spirit244

See next page. “A virago.” This is but a lengthened form of virgo, maiden, and was applied by Roman writers to maidens of masculine or heroic mould; hence to Pallas, Diana, an Amazon, etc. The repugnance felt towards women of this type in the more refined civilization of Christianity, is indicated by the lapse of the word into its modern objectionable sense.

244

There is here a hiatus in the translation, which may be thus supplied: “Eu. A new sort of Shield. You only wanted a Distaff instead of a Lance. Xa. His bones would have felt that he had to do with a Virago.”

Jockies have particular Sounds, etc.247

• Sunt verba et voces, quibus hunc lenire dolorem
• Possis, et magnam morbi deponere partem.
• Hor. Ep. i. 33.

Hold him by this Handle256

Epictetus says every thing has two handles, one by which it may, the other by which it may not be held. The general use of “seizing a handle, affording a handle, etc.,” in the sense of opportunity, is found in Plautus and elsewhere.

Mushrooms and Poppies265

As things which can be cut down at a stroke.

Religion and Liberties265

Pro aris et focis. “For altars and hearths.” The ideas of Religion and Home are blended in this famous Roman phrase. On the Roman focus or hearth stood the Lares or household gods in little niches; and in their honour the fire was kept burning.

My last Shift272

“Last anchor.” From the Greek. Sailors termed the largest and strongest anchor the sacred anchor, and in time of peril it was the last cast.

Mole Hills276

Lit., “Warts,” a still stronger hyperbole.

Cold Comfort276

Lit., “a Scythian speech.” Σκυθωˆν ῥη̂σις, Lucian. A Greek saying for anything rude or harsh in the hearing.

Necessity a hard Portion276

Lit., “a hard weapon.” “Necessity, which is the last and greatest weapon.” Liv. iv. 28.

The Italian Humour277

The old classical habit of railing at whatever was foreign as barbarous.

278

The transference of old Pagan associations of Venus with the protection of sailors to the Virgin Mary is another interesting example of the assimilation of the old mythology by the Roman system. One would imagine no stronger satire could have been written against the practice of supplication to many of the saints. Erasmus, however, in the apologetic piece at the end defends himself from so extreme a charge!

St. Christopher279

There was a gigantic wooden statue of him in Notre Dame, removed in 1785. The legend of this saint affords a good example of the influence which language exercises on thought, so that some myths are simply “diseases of language” (Max Muller). Christopher (Χριστοϕόρος) means as a name, Christ-bearer. Hence the legend of his bearing the child Jesus across the stream, and being ready to sink beneath the growing weight of Him who bore the sins of the world; of his gigantic stature, etc. The historic individuality of the good man is quite obscure. Perhaps he was an unconscious invention throughout.

For he being not unacquainted with the Distress, etc.276

A quotation of Dido’s words to Aneas: Haud ignara mali, miseris succurrere disco. Aen.

To divine Help282

“To the sacred anchor.” See above, p. 406.

O Virago!282

The noble sense of the word now lost in English use, equivalent to “What a heroine!”

Having all Things in Common289

“A true coenobium,” in original. κοινόβιον, lit., common life. Used by Jerome for convent, and coenobite for monk, as distinguished from the solitary eremite or anchoret. ἐρημίτης, a dweller in the desert; ἀναχωρητής, one who has retired from the world.

At Rome, Paris, or Venice, there’s no Body thinks any thing strange289

Or “nobody wonders at anything.” A trait of good breeding which is perhaps as noticeable in those cities in the present day, in contrast to the staring habits of many of our fellow-islanders. Grace of manners is one of the truest monuments of an ancient civilization, and is particularly striking in Italy generally.

Blitea instead of Margarita302

The former word means insipid, from some herb called βλίτον, blitum, strawberry-blite, etc. Margarita, a pearl.

He leers and sneers at me304

“His nose and sardonic laugh,” in original. For nose, see above, p. 385. There is some doubt as to the origin of “Sardonic.” In Homer, Plato, etc., it is given Sardanic, (as if from σαίρω, to grin, which is the probable derivation.) Others derive it from sardonion, a plant of Sardinia, which puckers the face when eaten. The ancients spoke of other kinds of risibility: the Ionic, Megaric, Chian laughs, Ajax’s laugh, etc.

The Ovation309

A punning allusion to ova, eggs, of which they were partaking. On ovation and triumph, see above, p. 395.

Such a kind of Judge as the Cuckoo and Nightingale once had319

That is, an Ass according to the fable.

I have begun321

Original, “præsul agi,” which may be paraphrased, “I have led off the dance.” The allusion is to the Salii, or dancing priests of Mars, the leader of whom was called præsul. Like the modern, “I have opened the ball.” It may be worth noticing that with the Romans dancing was essentially a religious performance, and was not respectable otherwise. There is certainly a close connexion between religious enthusiasm and rhythmic movements of the body. Witness King David; Milton’s dance of angels in Paradise Lost; Ranters and Shakers. Sterne (Sentimental Journey), watching a family dance at a French peasant’s house, says: “I fancied I could distinguish an elevation of spirit different from that which is the cause or the effect of simple jollity. In a word, I thought I beheld religion mixing in the dance!”

Poets are always reflecting, etc.321

The word is blathero, our blather, blether, Ger. blattern, etc.

A Sort of Lightning that proceeds from a Glass, etc.324

An old Greek saying; whence our “flash in the pan.”

That you are not become blacker than a Coal before now.324

From the effect of excommunicating curses.

Ask me any Thing that you have a Mind to ask me325

Lit., “Inquire from heaven even to earth.” A proverb, from Plautus.

Symbolism is indeed a military Word325

Σύμβολον, symbolum, denotes a token, sign, or pledge. Among the many applications of this idea, is that to a military signal or watchword. Hence, in ecclesiastical usage, a creed or confession of faith was termed a watchword—a means of mutual recognition and bond of union among Christians. Analogous to this is the ecclesiastical use of sacrament. This was originally the military oath of allegiance, taken by the Roman soldier to his general. So, metaphorically, the Christian on his baptism took an oath of allegiance to Christ, the Ἀρχηγόν, or “Chieftain of Salvation.” The “Apostles’ Creed,” so-called, dates, as a composition, from the fifth century.

I would not put my chief Confidence and Hope in him, etc.327

Lit., “I would not cast my sacred anchor in him, etc.” See above, p. 406.

Lest any should imagine him to be a Creature328

Alluding to the Arian heresy which taught that Christ was a Creature of God, although the most perfect.

I am not an Apuleius turned inside out328

Alluding to the Golden Ass of Apuleius, a fable relating the adventures of a man who has been metamorphosed into the form of an ass. Various speculations have been mooted as to the inner purport of the allegory. The story ascribed to Lucian, of Lucius or the Ass, is similar. Both pieces are said to have been founded on a work of one Lucius of Patræ.

Natural Rock329

Lit., “living rock,” which meant natural, in the sense of being unwrought or unremoved. But the epithet seems to point back to the ancient belief in the growth of stones. It was probably a dim perception of the truths which geology has brought to light.

That is beside our Creed (symbol)337

There is a play on symbol, which denoted also the cheque or ticket given up by each guest at a common meal or pic-nic, to be presented for payment afterwards.

According to the Greek Proverb. . . . talking not about a Waggon340

The translator has here missed the point. The phrase is de plaustro loqui, and means speaking down from a Waggon. The proverb is traceable to the rude beginning of Comedy, when the stage was a waggon, and the actors boors, their faces smeared with dregs; and when the “play” consisted of gross ribaldry and abuse, seasoned with more or less rude wit, levelled at the passers by, at well-known characters, or even at the immortal inhabitants of Olympus themselves.

Eu. Why thou’lt never be old341

Lit., “Truly a Tithonus’ old age, as they say!” Aurora (Eôs) obtained for him, her lover, the boon of immortality, but neglected to ask for eternal youth, so that he pined away in ever increasing decrepitude and begged that he might be changed into a cicada. Tennyson (“Tithonus”) has wrought at the idea with his usual exquisite felicity of expression:

• “I wither slowly in thine arms
• Here at the quiet limit of the world
• A white-hair’d shadow roaming like a dream
• The ever silent spaces of the East
• Far-folded mists, and gleaming halls of morn.”

Both Erasmus and the translator have mis-applied the saying about Tithonus. It is applicable to a decrepit, not to a fresh old age.

You were as great a Maggot341

See above p. 403. Lit., “There was no greater Trifler than you.”

My own mother-Wit341

Lit., “My own Mars”: my own unaided exertions.

An indifferent good one, and according to the Proverb, in a competent proportion to my own342

The proverb is quoted from Plutarch: τὴν κατὰ σεαυτὸν ἕλα, Choose a wife of your own condition.

εὐθυμία345

Literally, good-humour, (or temper) cheerfulness. The Greeks had also ῥᾳθυμία, easiness of temper, generally shading off into the sense of indolence.

Cackling gossip. . . . my Pullet. . . . French woman, . . . . French husband347

The old play once more on Gallus, Gallina in their different senses. See above, p. 392.

There had passed some Words between us, in the future Tense347

An allusion to the old legal and ecclesiastical doctrine concerning the binding force of verbal contracts before marriage. Any contract made in words of the present tense (per verba de præsenti) “I take you to wife”; and in case of cohabitation in words of the future tense (per verba de futuro),—“I will take you to wife,” was a valid marriage, and the parties might be compelled in the spiritual courts to celebrate it in facie ecclesiæ.

I have brought a Noble to nine Pence348

“Have given up horses for asses,” in the original. The noble is said to have been called so on account of the superior quality of the gold.

Master of seven Arts348

In the Mediæval schools the division of studies was into the trivium and the quadrivium; the former comprising Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric; the latter, Music, Arithmetic, Geometry and Astronomy. “All these studies were however referred to theology, and that in the narrowest manner; music, for example, being reduced to church chanting, and astronomy to the calculation of Easter,” (Hallam. Middle Ages.) The above is of course the origin of the Title “Master of Arts.”

Stock and Block349

Principal and interest.

More dangerous Rocks than those of Scilly349

“Than any Malea,” original. The proverbially dangerous promontory to the S. of Laconia. The play of words Malea, Alea, assists the play of thought around the image of a shipwreck.

An Allowance always to be made to one that makes the first Essay349

Συγγνώμη πρωτοπείρῳ: “Pardon the novice” (protopeirus, him who makes his first attempt or trial). Play on Proto—and Pam-peirus.

The Greek proverb, etc.351

Of which our translator appears to miss the point. “One must either eat tortoises or leave them alone,” is nearer to the sense. The notion was that if one ate a little of tortoise flesh, it gave one the “gripes”; if more freely the pain was soothed. The saying about “going the whole hog” is similar.

Pope Julius the Second353

Erasmus appears to have had the most cordial dislike for the character of this filibustering Pope. He was at Bologna when Julius made an entry into that city after a seige; and keenly contrasted his martial imperious bearing and pompous entourage with the meekness and humility of the Gospel. The dialogue, Julius Exclusus, or Julius shut out of heaven, is ascribed on internal evidence to Erasmus, although he never owned its authorship. He satirized the Pope also in the Praise of Folly: “I can show you an old man, whose valour is equal to that of any youth; who to disturb law and religion, spares neither expense nor caution, and to whose folly his flatterers join the name of zeal, piety, and strength of mind.”

They were all asleep, and added a dead Weight to my Waggon356

That the body is lighter awake than sleeping is stated in Pliny, H. N., vii. 17. Archbishop Trench, in his note on the miracle of Christ walking on the sea, speaks of it as a “well-attested fact,” and concludes that “the human consciousness, as an inner centre, works as an opposing force to the attraction of the earth, and the centripetal force of gravity.”

Humming Ale356

According to the original, simply, “remarkably good.” Some explain humming as corrupt for spuming, foaming; others from the sound good liquor is supposed to produce when drawn. This is wide of the mark. In Beaumont and Fletcher, and in Ben Jonson, Hum is named as a particular kind of strong liquor. “Strong waters, hum, Meath and Obarni.” Humming ale was probably that in which there was an infusion of spirit.

Good Men!361

A phrase said to have been current in popular speech in France for men whose wives were not all that wives should be.

St. Anthony takes charge of the Hogs364

His patronage of swineherds originated in the story of his forest life.

What he knows is what he has learned in private Confession, etc.365

A joking way of describing his ignorance. “He shakes his head, but there’s nothing in it.”

I should not say much perhaps, but I should cudgel her handsomely366

More spirited the original: “I should not treat her to bad words, but to a good cudgel.”

Accoutrements of a hectoring Soldier367

Lit., “Distinctions of Thrasonic folly.” Thraso is the blustering soldier of Terence’s Eunuchus. By some insensible transition of thought the name of Hector, the gentlest hero of the Iliad, has come unjustly to be associated with military swagger. Probably there is as little true connexion between what the French term “Chauvinisme” and the personal character of M. Chauvin.

The Mendicant Orders373

Their institution appears to have sprung from a reactionary movement against the worldliness of the established clergy and the ostentatious luxury of the ancient monastic orders. The Dominicans took their name from Dominic of Toulouse, and were established in 1216; the Franciscans from Francis of Assisi, in 1223. The Mendicants appear to have given a stricter application to the austere rule of Benedict, who founded an order in the sixth century. They were debarred by their foundation from acquiring possessions, and were to be maintained by alms only. The assumption of the peasant’s dress of the period and locality was, of course, in keeping with those principles. See on this subject Lecky’s European Morals and Hallam’s Middle Ages. The latter points at the interesting analogy between the relation of the Mendicants to the Church of Rome in the thirteenth century and that of the Methodists to the Church of England in the eighteenth. See also Sir James Stephen’s Essays on Ecclesiastical Biography.

Do us the Honour to preach to the People To-morrow374

Under the fostering policy of the popes, the Dominicans and Franciscans enjoyed exemption from episcopal authority, and could preach or hear confessions without permission of the ordinary. This policy rendered them the fastest friends of the popes and their supremacy. The unwisdom of the opposite policy of the rulers of the English Church has often been a subject of remark: the Methodists have passed into gradual estrangement from a communion from which they never formally separated.

Decrees and Decretals378

Of the Popes. The spurious “Decretals of Isidore,” which appeared in the eighth century, gave to the Bishop of Rome an appellant jurisdiction, and forbade national councils to be held without his consent, etc. Upon this imposture the fabric of Papal supremacy over the different national churches was gradually raised. Hallam’s Middle Ages.

Conjugal Amenities: the husband has been call’d Blockhead, etc.387

It may be worth while giving these elegancies of vituperation in their classic forms. The husband is called “a fungus, a flask, a sponge;” the lady is saluted with the epithets, “scrofa (breeding sow), Acco (tumour).” Acco, according to Hesychius, was an old woman who went mad on seeing her face in a mirror.

Must the Matrimony be without Juno and Venus?388

Juno was the great protectress of the female sex, and in this capacity received many and various appellations, Cinxia, Domiduca, Interduca, Februa, Jugalis, Lucina, Natalis, Populonia, Pronuba, Virginalis, Matrona, etc. Women sacrificed to her as Natalis on their birthday, as the men to their genius. The great festival of Matronalia was celebrated in her honour on the 1st of March by the women. Juno is specially the divine type of the married woman; hence her presidency over the marriage rites. For fuller information consult Smith’s Dictionaries and Creuzer’s Symbolik, sub voc. Venus, as Genetrix, favoured the pleasures of sexual love. The bride on her wedding day sacrificed a lock of her hair to Venus.

That earthly drunken Venus, but another heavenly One, etc.388

Alluding to Socrates teaching on the distinction between sensual and spiritual love. See the Phœdrus.

Gracchus and Cornelia389

See Plutarch’s Lives: the Gracchi.

Admetus’ Wife389

Admetus, for neglecting to sacrifice to Artemis on his wedding day, was doomed to die; but deliverance from death was promised him on condition of the substitution of his father, mother or wife in his stead. Alcêstis, the wife, consented to the sacrifice, but was rescued from death by Hercules, who wrestled with him for her body. The story forms the plot of Euripides’ beautiful drama Alcêstis, treated by Mr. Leighton in a picture exhibited in the Royal Academy a few years ago.

Porcia and Brutus389

See Plutarch’s Lives: Brutus. To test her capacity to face the danger of her husband’s enterprise against Julius Cæsar, and her right to share the secret which clouded his brow, she wounded herself severely in the thigh. On parting from Brutus on the fatal day, her eye fell on a picture of Hector taking leave of Andromache,—that scene of purest pathos in all Homer—and fainted: the only mark of weakness she ever showed. On Brutus’ death, she put an end to her own life.

Nasica, Paterculana389

The first Scipio Nasica was adjudged when a young man to be the purest citizen of the Republic, and was therefore sent with the Roman matrons to Ostia to receive a statue of Cybele which was being transported from Pessinus in Asia Minor, the chief seat of her worship, to Rome, in order to satisfy a Sibylline oracle. Sulpicia, the daughter of Paterculus, was in like manner selected from a hundred Roman matrons, in virtue of her modesty, to dedicate an image of Venus at Rome. Livy.

What shall I say to the rest? I’ll tell you in your Ear.390

Probably that they are to hang themselves, or some such polite salutation.

Foibles403

Lit., “He has so far a mole.” i. e., blemish.

The Goddess Laverna418

She was the patroness of thieves, especially in the sense of secret contrivers of fraud, at Rome. Horace (Ep. i. 16. 60) introduces the picture of a hypocrite who after offering public sacrifice, and loudly calling on Janus and on Apollo,—gods of Light and Day,—mutters under his breath the following prayer: “Fair Laverna, grant me grace to deceive, grace to appear a just and holy man; cast the veil of night over my sins, cover my frauds with a cloud!” One is tempted to moralize upon the fact of so remarkable a worship having existed and been popular. Religion may be connected, in fact, be founded upon any and every human passion and instinct. Men idealize their desires, and then worship them. They may be devout in their evil. There are many modern worshippers at the altar of Laverna.

An Artist will live anywhere419

More literally, “Every land feeds art.” A Greek proverb. There is another to the like effect, “Art is men’s harbour in misfortune.” Of course the term art is used in the original sense of practical ability for particular work, skill, craft.

Wherever I find a hungry Sea-cob, I throw him out a bait419

λάρος κεχηνώς, a Greek commonplace. What bird is exactly intended is not certain; probably either a comorant or sea-gull. In the word sea-cob it is not easy to trace the appropriateness of the designation (cob, Anglo Saxon koppe, head or top) to a bird.

An usual Proverb, that has more Truth in’t than good Latin, Novus Rex, nova lex425

This is good Latin as it stands, but in the original it runs “Novus Rex, novus lex:” a specimen of popular or dog Latin.

Provided Regard be had to Probability and Decency425

τὸ πιθανὸν κὰι πρέπον, original.

May I have the liberty to speak three Words? Eut. What do you like the Feast to be an unlucky one?425

This is an allusion to the Roman legal custom of holding certain days nefasti, or in a technical sense unlawful, on which there was a cessation of public business; and the praetor, or magistrate, was not allowed to pronounce the three words, Do, Dico, Addico. Hence the word nefastus passed into the sense of unlucky, as in the text. It would be better rendered, however, unlawful in this place, according to the context.

Shot free426

Escot, scot, and shot seem to be three forms of the same word (Anglo Saxon sceat), denoting the proportion of payment, legal or otherwise, which falls to each. Hence the legal expression, scot and lot. The radical idea is that of something cast down.

Story of Agesilaus426

See Plutarch’s Lives for further stories of his sobriety.

The Marshal of the Hall426

The “architriclinus,” in original: the word used in the New Testament for “ruler of the feast.” The word “marshal” has represented a variety of offices in the course of its history. Etymologically and originally it meant a horse-boy or ostler; and in course of time, officials employed in various charges in great households were designated by this name.

John Botzemus, the Canon of Constance427

An esteemed friend of Erasmus.

Drink and Blow427

See above, p. 393.

The Statute of Rheims429

This city was under episcopal government from the time of Clovis down to the French Revolution; and to this government Guizot traces the origin of European civilisation.

The Shadow of the Ass429

Alluding to Demosthenes’ amusing story, in satire of foolish litigation, concerning the owner and the borrower of an ass, who went to the courts on the question whether the borrower was entitled to lie down in the shadow of the animal.

The Fishmongers’ Fair and the Butchers’ Time to be starved429

A witty circumlocution for the Lenten season.

The Knocker (called a Crow) tied up in a white Cloth442

The corvus or crow refers to the usual shape of the knocker. The custom of tying up the knocker (in a wedding glove) at the house of an accouchée has come down to our day.

A Quandary442

A very amusing word in its origin. It is said to be an English corruption of the French Qu’en dirai-je?—“what shall I say about it”—an ejaculation of perplexity. It seems to have come into use in the seventeenth century; is found in Beaumont and Fletcher. It would be interesting to know if there is any anecdote or incident to account for its coming into use.

Christiernus, King of Denmark, etc.443

Christiern II. who has been called the Nero of the North: he was driven from the throne of Sweden by Gustavus Vasa, and afterwards from that of Denmark by his subjects, 1523. He died in prison, 1559. Francis I., after the battle of Pavia, 1525, was kept prisoner at Madrid by Charles V. He was set at liberty in 1526, on signing a treaty renouncing Naples, the Milanese, Genoa, Flanders and Artois. Ferdinand I., brother of Charles V., was crowned King of Hungary and Bohemia, 1527. He succeeded Charles in the Empire, 1558. These dates may refresh the memory of the historical reader, and call to mind the state of Europe at the time Erasmus was writing. Since the Turks had in 1453 taken Constantinople, they had become the anxiety and terror of Europe. The migration of distinguished Greek scholars, Chrysoloras and others to Italy, during this period, is an important and interesting fact in connexion with the revival of Letters.

Christ’s seamless Coat is rent asunder on all Sides443

The “seamless coat of Jesus” is a favourite metaphor with ecclesiastical writers for the unity of the church. Perhaps it may not be impertinent to remark that the metaphor appears to be neither Scriptural nor appropriate. The Body rather than the Coat of Christ—the body not a bone of which was broken—designates, in St. Paul, the unity of the church. The seamless coat however, better answers to the doctrine of so-called “Catholic” unity,—or rather uniformity.

Artists use to be most exquisite in their later Performances444

Lit., “Are wont to surpass themselves, etc.” An anticipation of Burns’s sentiment concerning Nature:—

• “Her ’prentice hand she tried on man,
• And then she made the lasses, O!”

Horace’s Saying takes place here449

See Ep. i. 2. 69: “A jar will long retain the odour of the liquid with which when new it was once impregnated.”

The Body of an Ass, as it happened to Apuleius450

On the story of the man metamorphosed into an ass, retaining the thoughts and feelings of humanity, as told by Lucian and Apuleius, see above, p. 412.

As much as Darnel does to a clear Eye-Sight450

For this ancient notion, see Plautus, Mil. ii. 3, 50; Ovid, Fast. i. 691, “let the fields be free from darnel that spoils the eyes.”

An Alembick452

An Arabic word. A still or chemical retort.

Why does Coriander help the Memory? Why does Hellebore purge the Memory?452

This very ancient notion of particular herbs being specifics against certain diseases appears to have been exploded by modern science. One of the chief uses of hellebore amongst the Greeks was as an antidote to madness. So Horace (Ser. ii. 3. 82) proposes to give the largest dose of it to misers: perhaps a whole Anticyra of it, alluding to the place of its noted growth.

God and Angels are Spirits, but we feel the Spirit453

This as it stands is not clear. The meaning turns on the original sense of spiritus, Lat. (πνενˆμα), which is simply wind, breath. Fabulla means that a breath is something to be felt. Hence the disputed sense of psalm civ. 4. “He maketh his angels spirits,” or “He maketh the winds his angels or messengers.”

The Garment of Hercules informs us how much a Garment contributes to the Health of the Body453

Alluding to the vest sent to Hercules by the centaur Nessus, and which consumed his body.

That Question, whether one and the same Soul is capable of wearing out many Bodies, it shall be left to Pythagoras453

Alluding to the famous Pythagorean doctrine of the transmigration of souls.

σωˆμα as though it were ση̂μα454

ση̂μα, a tomb. A poor play on words.

They whose Minds are not taken up with the love of corporeal Things, dwell in a tent, and are ready to come forth as soon as the Commander calls454

Something resembling this beautiful idea is ascribed to Pythagoras in Cicero, De Senec. xx. He forbade men to depart from their guard or station in life without the order of their Commander. Plato used similar dissuasives from suicide in the Phaedo.

There’s no going out before the Landlord calls out455

“Just as a landlord, who has not received his rent, pulls down the doors, removes the rafters, and fills up the well, so I seem to be driven out of this little body, when Nature who has let it to me takes away one by one, eyes and ears, hands and feet. I will not therefore delay longer but will cheerfully depart as from a banquet. Musonius in Stobaeus. See also Seneca, Ep. lviii.

If we can give any Credit to the Fables of Socrates, their Wings were broken by their falling from heaven.

See the Phædrus. The idea of Socrates is however rather that of the wings decaying and perishing and so being lost to the soul during the present fallen and mortal state.

The Soul is the Act of an Organical, Physical Body, having Life in Potentia456

See Aristotle, De Anima ii. 1. The English word act (for actus Lat.) inadequately represents the Greek ἐντελέχεια, the Entelechy, or realization of what was previously only δύναμις, or potentiality. Fabulla’s question, “Why does he rather call it an Act than a Journey or Way?” alludes to a lawyer’s distinction.

College of Sages457

“Sapientum centuriae,” “the centuries (in the Roman military sense) of wise men,” original.

Sense in Timber-Trees, etc.458

It would be interesting to have some verification of the fact mentioned—if indeed it be a fact of external nature, not an illusion of the imagination. The phenomena of climbing plants observed by Darwin certainly appear undistinguishable from these of intelligence. Science still appears unable to draw a sharp line of demarcation between the vegetable and animal world. The above is from Pliny, Natural History, xxiv., 1.

You philosophize very bluntly459

“Pingui Minerva,” “rough mother-wit,” original. Hor. Ser. ii. 2, 3: “Rusticus, abnormis sapiens, crassaque Minerva.”

Greek Etymology of Μήτηρ from μὴ τηρεɩ̂ν, i. e., from not looking after462

If this etymology was intended for a joke, it is a very poor one. It is possible that Erasmus intended it seriously, for in his day the science of the subject was not yet even in its infancy. Μήτηρ with the kindred words in various Indo-European dialects is probably derived from the Sanskrit mâ, to make. Max Müller, Oxford Essays, 1856, p. 14, sq.

She shall be saved in Child-bearing463

σωθήσεται δὲ διὰ τη̂ς τεκνογονίας, 1 Tim., ii. 15, “through her child-bearing.” Alford’s sensible note is worth quoting: “The construction of the sentence is precisely as in 1 Cor., iii. 15, “but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire.” Just as that man should be saved through, as passing through fire which is his trial, his hindrance in his way, in spite of which he escapes,—so shall she be saved, through, as passing through her child-bearing, which is her trial, her curse (Gen. iii., 16) her (not means of salvation but) hindrance in the way of it.” Of course there has been a variety of forced explanations of τεκνογονία, from the Fathers downwards.

I won’t discharge you till you have finished the good Service that you have begun464

There is a pretty pleasantry here,—obliterated in the translation. Eutrapelus says, “Consider me as your mancipium, or bond-slave.” “Very well,” replies Fabulla, “I shall not manumit you until, etc.” On the Roman ceremony of manumission, see Smith’s Dict. Ant.