civility, especially to strangers, yet I thought wonderfull to perceive the
inbreed antipathy they carry against the Spaniard. That I have heard it
many a tyme, not only from Mr. Daillé, but from persons of more refined
judgements then his, yea even from religious persones, that they had not no
civility for a Spaniard, that not one of a 1000 of them is welcoome. I
pressing whence this might come to passe that they so courteously receaving
all sortes of strangers, be they Scots, English, Germans, Hollanders, or
Italians, and that they had none of this courtoisie to spare for a
Spaniard, they replied that it came to pass from the contrariety of their
humeurs; that the French ware franck (whence they would derive the name of
their nation), galliard, pleasant, and pliable to all company; the Spaniard
quite contrary retired, austere, rigid, proud. And indeed their are
something of truth in it; for who knows not the pride of the Castilian: if
a Castilian then a Demigod. He thinks himselfe _ex meliore luto natus_ then
the rest of the world is.
Its a fine drollery to sie a Frenchman conterfit the Castilian as he
marches on his streets of Castile wt his castilian bever cockt, his hand in
his syde, his march and paw[124] speaking pride it selfe. Who knows not
also that mortell feud that the Castilian carries to the Portugueze and the
Portuegueze reciprocally to them, and whence this I beseich you if not from
the conceit they have of themselfe. This minds me of a pretty story I have
heard them tell of a Castilian who at Lisbon came into a widows chop to buy
something. She was sitting wt her daughter; the lass observing his habit
crys to her mother, do not sell him nothing, mother, hees a Castilian, the
mother chiding her daughter replied, whow dare you call the honest man a
Castilian; on that tenet they hold that a Castilian cannot be a honest man.
I leive you to ghesse whether the daughters wipe or the mothers was
tartest.
[124] paw = _pas_.
Howell (as I remember) in a letter (its in the first volume, letter 43) he
writes from Lyons, he findes the 2 rivers on which that brave city (for its
situation yeelding to none in Europe, not to London tho' on lovely Thames)
standes on, to wit the Rhosne and the Sosne, to be a pretty embleme of the
diversity thats betuixt the humeurs of thess 2 mighty nations (France and
Spain), who deservedly may be termed the 2 axletrees or poles on which the
Microcosme of Europe turnes. Its theirfor wery much in the concernement of
the rest of Europe to hold their 2 poles at a even balance, lest the one
chancing at lenth to wieght doune the other there be no resisting of him,
and we find ourselfes wise behind the hand.
Looking again on the Rhosne, which runes impetuously and wiolently, it
mindes him of the French galliardness and lightness, or even inconstancy.
Looking again on the Sosne, and finding it glid smoothly and calmly in its
channel, its mindes him (he sayes) of the rigid gravity the Spaniard
affected. And to speak the truth, this pride and selfe conceetedness is
more legible in the Spaniard than in the French, yet if our experience
abuse us not, we have discovered a great tincture of it in the French. That
its not so palpable amongs them as in the Spaniard we impute to that
naturall courtoisie and civility they are given to, that tempers it or
hides it a little, being of the mind that if the Spaniard had a litle grain
of the French pleasantness, the pride for which we tax them sould not be so
apparent.
Yet we discovered a beastly proud principle that we have observed the
French from the hiest to the lowest (let him be never so base or so
ignorant) to carry about wt them, to wit, that they are born to teach all
the rest of the world knowledge and manners. What may be the mater and
nutrix of this proud thought is not difficult to ghess; since wtout doubt
its occasioned by the great confluence of strangers of all sorts (excepting
only the Italian and Spaniard, who think they have to good breeding at home
to come and seik it of the French) who are drawen wt the sweitness of the
country, and the common civility of the inhabitants. Let this we have sayd
of the French pass for a definition of him till we be able to give a
better.
About the beginning of September at Poictiers, we had the newes of a horrid
murder that had bein perpetrat at Paris, on a Judge criminell by tuo
desperat rascalls, who did it to revenge themselfes of him for a sentence
of death he had passed against their brother for some crime he had
committed. His wife also, as she came in to rescue hir husband, they
pistoled. The assassinats ware taken and broken on the wheell. He left 5
million in money behind him, a terrible summe for a single privat man,
speaking much the richness of Paris.
The palais at Poictiers (which with us we call the session) raises the 1
Saturday of September, and sittes doune again at Martimess.
We remember that in our observations at Orleans we marked that the violent
beats heir procures terrible thunders and lightnening, and because they are
several tymes of bad consequence, the thunder lighting sometymes on the
houses, sometymes on the steeples and bells, levelling all to the ground,
that they may evite the danger as much as they can they sett all the bells
of the city on work gin goon.[125]
[125] Ding dong.
A man may speir at me what does the ringing of the bells to the thunder.
Yes wery much; for its known that the thunder is partly occasioned by the
thickness, grossness, impuritude, crassitude of the circumambient air wt
which the thunder feides itselfe as its matter. Now Im sure if we can
dissipate and discusse this thickness of the air which occasiones the
thunder, we are wery fair for extinguishing the thunder itselfe according
to the Axioma, _sublata causa tollitur effectus_, whilk maxime tho it holds
not in thess effect which dependes not on the cause _in esse_ and
_conservari_ but only in _fieri_: as _filius, pater quidem est eius causa;
attamen eo sublato non tollitur filius quia nullo modo dependet filius a
patre sive in esse sive in conservari: solum modo ab eo dependet ut est in
fieri_. Yet my axiome is good in this present demonstration, since the
thunder dependes on this grossenese of the air, not only in its _fieri_,
but even in its _esse_ and _conservari_. But weill yeell say, let it be so,
but what influence has the ringing of the bells to dissipat this
grosseness: even wery much: for the sound and noice certainly is not a
thing immateriall; ergo it most be corporeall: since theirfor wt the
consent of the papists themselfes _duo corpora non possunt se penetrare aut
esse in codem loco nuturaliter_, its consequentiall that the sound of the
bells as it passes thorow the circumambient air to come to our ears and to
pass thorow all the places wheir it extends its noice makes place for it
selfe by making the air yeeld that stands in its way; whence it rarifies
and purifies the air and by consequence disipates the crassities of the
air, which occasions the thunder.
That the noice thats conveyed to our ears is corporeall and material be it
of bels or of canons is beyond controversy, since _sonus_ is _obiectum
sensûs corpori, ut auditus: at objectum rei corporcae oportet esse
corporeum: cum incorporea sub sensibus naturaliter non cadunt_. I adde
_naturaliter_, because I know _super naturaliter in beatificá visione Deus
quodammodo cadet sub sensibus ut glorificatus_, according to that of Jobs
with thir same wery eyes sall I see my Redeimer: yea not only is _sonus
quid materiale_, but further something much more grossely material then the
objects of the rest of the senses, as for instance in the discharging of a
canon being a distance looking on we would think it gives fire long before
it gives the crack, tho in wery truth they be both in the same instant.
The reason then whey we sie the fire before we hear the crack is because
the _species Wisibiles_ that carries the fire to our eyes, tho material are
exceeding spirituall and subtill and are for that soon conveyed to our
sight: when the _Species Audibiles_ being more gross takes a pitty tyme to
peragrate and passe over that distance that is betuixt us and the canon, or
they can rendre them selfes to the organ of our hearing.
But let us returne, we are informed that in Italy, wheir thunders are bothe
more frequent and more dangerous then heir, they are wery carefull not only
to cause ring all their bells, but also to shoot of their greatest cannons
and peices of ordonnances and that to the effect mentioned. I am not
ignorant but the Papists feignes and attributes a kind of wertue to the
ringing of bells for the chassing away of all evill spirits if any place be
hanted or frequented wt them. Yet this reason cannot have roome in our
case, since ther are few so ignorant of the natural causes of thunder as to
impute it to the raging of ill spirits in the air, tho the Mr. of Ogilvy at
Orleans, who very wilfully whiles would maintain things he could not
maintain, would not hear that a natural cause could be given of the
thunder, but would impute it to evill spirits. I do not deny but the Devils
wt Gods permission may occasion thunders and other tempests in the air, but
what I aime at is this, they never occasion it so, but they make use of
natural means; for who is ignorant but the Meteorologists gives and
assignes all the 4 causes of it its efficient, its materiall, its formall
and its finall.
I cannot forget the effect I have sein the thunder produce in the papists.
When they hear a clap coming they all wery religiously signe theyr
forfronts and their breast wt the signe of the cross, in the wertue of
which they are confident that clap can do them no scaith. Some we have sein
run to their beads and their knees and mumble over their prayers, others
away to the church and doune before the Altar and blaither anything that
comes in their cheek. They have no thunders in the winter.
Discoursing of the commodityes of sundry nations transported to France,
their ordinar cxpression is, that they are beholden to Scotland for nothing
but its herrings, which they count a wery grosse fish no wayes royall, as
they speak, thats, not for a kings table. As for linnen, cloath and other
commodities the kingdome affords, we have litle more of them then serves
our oune necessity.
I was 5 moneth in France before I saw a boyled or roasted egge. Their
mouton is neither so great nor so good heir as its at home. The reason of
which may be the litle roome they leive for pasturage in the most parts of
France. They buy a leg heir for 8 souse, whiles 10 souse.
On the 20 of August came about St. Bernard, Abbot of Clarevill,[126] his
day, who founded the order of the Foullions[127] or Bernardines, whence we
went that afternoon to their Convent and heard one of the order preach his
panygyrick, but so constupatly that the auditory seweral tymes had much ado
to keip themselfes from laughting.
[126] Clairvaux.
[127] See p. 47, note.
On the 24 of the samen ditto was keipt the Aposle St. Bartholemewes day:
the morrow, 25, St. Lowis, king of France, his day, a great feste, and in
that city the festivall day of the marchands (for each calling hes its
particular festivall day: as the taylors theirs, the sutors theirs, the
websters thers, and so furth). Every trade as their day comes about makes a
sort of civil procession thorow all the streets of the toune. Instead of
carrieng crosses and crucifixes, according to the custome of the place,
they carry, and that on the shoulders of 4 of the principal of the trade, a
great farle of bread, seiming to differ nothing from the great bunes we use
to bake wt currants all busked wt the fleurs that the seasone of the year
affordes, and give in winter then wt any herbe to be found at the tyme; and
this wt a sort of pomp, 4 or 5 drummers going before and as many pipers
playing; the body of the trade coming behind. To returne, tho this day was
the feste of the marchands, yet I observed they used not the ceremomy
before specified, looking on it as dishonorable and below them.
This day we went to the Jesuits Church and heard one of the learnedest of
the Augustinians preach, but tediously. The nixt feste was the 8 of
Septembre, _Nativité de nostre Dame_. On which I went and heard our
Comoedian the Jesuit preach hir panegyrick and his oune Valedictory Sermon
(for they preach 12 moneth about, and he had ended his tower[128]). He
would have had us beleiving that she was cleansed from the very womb from
that wery sin which all others are born wt, that at the moment of hir
conception she receaved a immense degrie of grace infused in her. If he
ware to draw the Horoscope of all others that are born he would decipher it
thus, thou sal be born to misery, angoiss, trouble and vexation of spirit,
which, on they wery first entering into this walley of tears, because thou
cannot tell it wt they tongue thou sal signify by thy weiping. But if I
ware, sayes he, to cast our charming Ladies Horoscope I would have
ascertained then, that she was born for the exaltation of many, that she
[was] born to bear the only sone of God, etc.
[128] Tour, turn
The sone he brought in as the embleme of Justice ever minding his father of
his bloody death and sufferings, to the effect that he take vengeance for
it even on thess that crucifies him afresh. The mother he brought on the
stage as the embleme of mercy, crying imperiously, _jure matris_, I
inhibite your justice, I explode your rigor, I discharge your severity. Let
mercy alone triumph. Surely if this be not blasphemy I know not whats
blasphemie. To make Christ only Justice fights diamettrally[129] wt the
Aposle John, If any man hath sinned he has a Advocat with the father.
Christ the righteous, he sayes, is not Christ minding his father continualy
of this passion; its true, but whey; to incite God to wrath, sayes he. O
wicked inference, horrid to come out of the mouth of any Christian save
only a Jesuites. Does not the Scripture language cut thy throat, O
prophane, which teaches us that Christ offereth up to his father his
sufferings as a propitiatory sacrifice; and consequently to appaise, not to
irritate.
[129] Diametrically. The word is indistinctly written.
His inference at lenth was thus: since the business is thus then,
Messieurs, Mesdames, mon cher Auditoire, yeel do weill in all occassion to
make your address to the Virgin, to invock hir, yea definitivly I assert
that if any of you have any lawfull request if yeel but pray 30 dayes
togither once every day to the Virgin ye sal wtout faill obtain what you
desire. On whilk decision I suppose a man love infinitly a woman who is
most averse from him, if he follow this rule he sall obtaine hir. But who
sies not except thess that are voluntary blind whow rash, inconsiderat, and
illgrounded thir decisions are, and principally that of invocking the
Virgin, since wtout doubt its a injury to Christ, whom we beleive following
the Scripture to be the only one Mediator betwixt God and Man. Also, I find
Christ calling us to come to him, but never to his mother or to Peter or
Paull.
It will not be a unreasonable drollery whiles to counterfit our Regent, Mr.
James,[130] if it be weill tymed, whow when he would have sein any of his
scollers playing the Rogue he would take them asyde and fall to to admonish
them thus. I think you have forgot ye are _sub ferula_, under the rod, ye
most know that Im your Master not only to instruct you but to chastize you,
and wt a ton[131] do ye ever think for to make a man, Sir; no, I promise
you no. [He killed Kincairnes father by boyling the antimonian cup, which
ought only to seep in.][132] _Inter bonos bene agier_.[133] When any plead
a prate[134] and all denied it, I know the man, yet _neminem nominabo_,
Honest Cicero hes learned me that lesson.
[130] I have not discovered who Mr. James was.
[131] 'Wt a ton' is possibly 'with a tone,' i.e. raising his voice.
[132] Interlined.
[133] _Agier_ for _agere_.
[134] Played a trick.
We cannot forgett also a note of a ministers (called Mr. Rob. Vedderburne)
preaching related me by Robert Scot which happened besyde them. God will
even come over the hil at the back of the kirk their, and cry wt a hy
woice, Angel of the church of Maln[moon]sy, compeir; than Ile answer, Lord,
behold thy servant what hes thou to say to him. Then God wil say, Wheir are
the souls thou hest won by your ministery heir thir 17 years? He no wal
what to answer to this, for, Sirs, I cannot promise God one of your souls:
yet Ile say, behold my own Soul and my crooked Bessies (this was his
daughter), and wil not this be a sad matter. Yet this was not so ill as Mr.
John Elies note of a Minister was, who prayed for the success of the Kings
navy both by sea and be land.
The very beggers in France may teach folk thrift. Ye sall find verie few
women beggers (except some that are ether not working stockings, or very
old and weak) who wants[135] their rock in their bosome, spining very
busily as they walk in the streets.
[135] wants = have not.
The French, notwtstanding all their civility, are horridly and furiously
addicted to the cheating of strangers. If they know a man to be a stranger
or they cause him not pay the double of what they sell it to others for,
theyl rather not sell it at all, which whither it comes from a malitious
humour or a greedy I cannot determine, yet I'm sure they play the fooll in
it, for tho they think a stranger wil readily give them all they demand, or
if he mint to go away that he'el come again; yet they are whiles mistaken.
Many instances we could give of it in our oune experience, al whilk we sall
bury at this tyme, mentioning only one of Patrick Humes, who the vinter he
was at Poictiers, chancing to get the cold, went to buy some sugar candy.
Demanding what they sold the unce of it for, they demanded 18 souse, at
last came to 15, vould not bat a bottle;[136] wheirupon thinking it over
dear he would have none of it, but coming back to Mr. Alex'rs he sent furth
his man, directing him to that same wery chop, who brought him in that for
3 souse which they would not give him under 15. That story may pass in the
company of one that understandes French, of the daughter who was sitting wt
her mother at the fire, wt a great sigh cried, '_O que je foutcrois._ The
mother spearing what sayes thou, she replied readily, _O que je souperois_.
[136] Bate a bodle.
On September 12 arrived heir 2 Englishmen from Orleans, who brought us
large commendations from Mr. Ogilvie their, who desiring to sy the toune, I
took them first up to the steeple of the place, which being both situat on
a eminence and also hy of it selfe gave us a clear survey of the whole
toune. We discovered a great heap of wacuities filled up wt gardens and
wines, and the city seimed to us like a round hill, the top of it and all
the sydes being filled wt houses. And to our wiew it seimed not to have
many mo houses then what we had discovered at Orleans, for their we thought
we saw heir one and their one dispersed. At Orleans we would think they lay
all in a heap (lump).[137] From thence, not desiring but that they sould
find the Scots as civil and obligding as any, we was at the paines to take
them first to the church of Nostre Dame la grande, on the wall of which
that regardes the place standes the statue of the Empereur Constantine, _a
cheval_, wt a sword in his hand. From thence to Ste. Radegondes, wheir we
showed them hir _tombeau_; from that to St. Croix, wheir we showed them the
_empressa_ of Christs foot, of which we spake already; and from that to St.
Peters, which we looked all on as a very large church, being 50 paces
broad.
[137] Interlined.
In the afternoon we went to the Church of St. Hilaire, wheir at a distance
we discovered the Scots walk; so called because when the Englishes ware
beseiging the toune a Regiment of Scotsmen who ware aiding the French got
that syde of the toune to garde and defend, who on some onset behaving
themselfes gallantly the Captain got that great plot of ground which goes
now under that name gifted him by the toune, who after mortified to a
nunnery neir hand, who at present are in possession of it. The church we
fand to smell every way of antiquity.
Heir we saw first that miraculous stone (of which we also brought away some
relicts) which if not touched has no smell, if rubed hard or stricken wt a
key or any other thing, casteth a most pestilentious, intollerable smell,
which we could not indure. We tried the thing and fand it so. The occasion
and cause of this they relate wariously. Some sayes that the stone was a
sepulchre stone, and under it was buried a wicked man that had led a ill
life, whos body the Dewill came on a tyme and carried away; whence the
stone ever stinks in that maner since. Others say that when the Church was
a bigging, the Dewill appeared to one of the maisons, in the signe
[shape][138] of a mulet and troubled him; wheirupon the maison complained
to St. Hilaire the Bischop, who watched the nixt day wt the maison, and the
Dewill appearing in that shape he caused take him and yoke him in a cart to
draw stones to the bigging of the church. They gott him to draw patiently
that great stone which we saw and which stinks so, but he got away and
would draw no more.
[138] Interlined.
Nixt we saw St. Hilaires _berceau_, wheirin they report he lay, a great
long peice of wood hollowed (for it wil hold a man and I had the curiosité
to lay in it a while) halfe filled wt straw that they may lay the softer.
To this the blinded papists attributes the vertue of recovering madmen or
those that are besydes themselfes to their right wites, if they lay in it 9
dayes and 9 nights wt their handes bound, a priest saying a masse for them
once every day. And indeed according to the beleife of this place it hath
bein oft verified. The fellow that hes a care of thess that are brought
hither told us of a Mademoisselle who was extraordinarly distracted and who
was fully recovered by this means. Another of a gentleman who had gone mad
for love to a gentlewoman whom he could not obtaine, and who being brought
their in that tyme recovered his right wits as weill as ever he had them in
his dayes. Its commonly called the _berceau de fols_; so that heir in their
flitting they cannot anger or affront one another worse then to cast up
that they most be rockt in St. Hilaires cradle, since its none but fools or
madmen that are used so.
The greatest man in the province of Poictou is the governour, who in all
things representes the king their, save only that he hath not the power to
pardon offenders or guilty persones. Tho a man of wast estat, to wit of
300,000 livres a year, yet he keips sick a low saile[139] that he wil not
spend the thrid of his rent a year, only a pitty garde or 7 or 8 persons on
foot going before his coach; and 4 or 5 lacquais behind; yea he sells vin,
which heir is thought no disparadgement to no peir of France, since theirs
a certain tym of the year that the King himselfe professes to sell win, and
for that effect he causes at the Louwre hing out a bunch of ivy, the symbol
of vin to be sold.
[139] Lives so quietly.
The King also playes notably weill on the drum, especially the keetle
drumes, thinking it no disparagdement when he was a boy to go thorow Paris
whils playing on the drum, whiles sounding the trumpet, that his subjects
may sie whow weill hes wersed in all these warlike, brave, martiall
excercises. The invention of the keetle drume we have from the Germans who
makes great use of it.
The father of this present King also, Lowis the 13, could exactly frame and
make a gun, and much more a pistol, with all the appartenances of it, as
also canons wt all other sort of Artillerie; for he was a great engineer.
There are amongs the French nobility some great deall richer then any
subject of our Kings; for the greatest subject of the King of Englands is
the Duc of Ormond, or the Earle of Northumberland, nether of which tho hath
above 30,000 pounds sterling, which make some 300,000 livres in french
money, which is ordinar for a peir in France. The last of which, to wit, my
Lord Northumberland, by reason of that great power and influence he hath in
the north of England, his oune country, the parliament of England of old
hath found it not a miss to discharge him the ever going their, and that
for the avoiding and eviting of insurrectiones which, if he ware amongs
them, he could at his pleasure raise. Surely this restraint neids not be
tedious to him since he is confined in a beautiful prison, to wit, London;
yea he may go thorow all the world save only Northumberland, he may come to
Scotland whilkes benorth Northumberland be sea.[140] It may be it might be
telling Scotland that by sick another act they layd a constrainct on that
house of Huntly, the Cock of the north. If so, the French Jesuits sould not
have such raison to boast (as we have heard them), and the papists sould
not have so great footing in the north as they have.
[140] I have not traced the authority for this statement.