stranger nations, by that thinking to draw the money of al other nations to
themselfes. This gives occasion to that book we have sein called
_Declaration du Roy et nouveau reglement sur le faict des Monnoyes tant de
France que estrangeres, donné par Lowis 13, an_ 1636. This book at least
hath 500 several peices gold and silver currant in France. It specifies
what each of them vieghs and what the King ordaines them to passe for.
First he showes us a great nombre of French peices of gold wt their shapes
what they carry on both sydes: then the gold of Navarre that passes: then
the Spanish and of Flanders, as the ducat and pistoles: then of Portugal,
as St. Estienne: then the English Rosenoble passing for 10 livres 10 souse:
the noble Henry of England for 9 liv. 10 souse: English Angelot for 7
livres: the Scotes and English Jacobuses, which we call 14 pound peices, as
also the Holland Ridres for 13 liv: that Scots peice thats wt 2 swords
thorow other, crouned the whol is 13, the halfe one 6 liv. 10 souse (it
hath, _salus populi est suprema lex)_: the new Jacobus, which we cal the 20
shiling sterling peice, 12 fra: then Flandres gold. The Scotes croune of
gold, which hath on the one syde_ Maria D.G. Regina Scotorum_, passes for 4
livres 5 souse.[194] Then he hath the Popes money, which hath Peter and
Paul on the one syde and the Keyes, the mitre and 3 flies on the other,
some of it coined at Avignon, some at Rome. Then the gold of Bologne,
Milan, Venise, Florence, Parma, Avoye, Dombes, Orange, Besançon, Ferrare,
Lucque, Sienne, Genes, Savoye, Geneve, wt that about the syde, _lux oritur
post tenebras_: Lorraine, Liege, Spinola, Mets, Frise, Gueldres, Hongry,
L'empyre, Salbourg, Prusse, Provinces Unies wt this, _concordiâ res parvae
crescunt_, Ferrare and then of Turquie, which is the best gold of them al,
its so fine it wil ply like wax: the armes wtin consistes of a number of
caracters iust like the Hebrew. Thus for the Gold. As to mony it hath al
the several realles of the Spaniard, as of al the Dolles or Dollers of the
Empire wt the silver of al their neighbouring nations. Our shiling[195] is
ordained to passe for 11 souse.
[193] Enhance the price of.
[194] For a comparison of these values, see Introduction, p. xliii.
[195] Here the shilling sterling.
Goropius Becanus in hes _Origines Antwerpianae_ would wery gladly have the
world beleive that the Cimbrick or Low Dutch is the first language of the
world, that which was spoken in Paradise; finally that the Hebrew is but a
compond ishue of it because the Hebrew seimes to borrow some phrases and
words of it when in the interim[196] it borrows of none. This he layes
doune for a fondement and as in confesso, which we stiffly and on good
ground denieng, al his arguments wil be found to split on the sophisme
_petitionis principii_.
[196] When in fact. So again p. 85.
The ground upon which the Phrygians vendicats their langage for the
anciennest is not worth refuting, to wit that these 2 Children that
Psammeticus King of Egypt caused expose so that they never hard the woice
of man: the first thing ever they cried was _bec_, which in the Phrygian
language, as also in old Low Dutch (so that we have to do wt Goropius heir
also, who thinks this to make mutch to his cause) signifies bread, is not
worth refuting, since they might ether light on that word by chance, or
they had learned it from the baying of the sheip wt whom they had
conversed.
To abstract from the Antiquitie of tongues, the most eloquent language at
present is the French, which gets such acceptance every wheir and relishes
so weill in eaches pallat that its almost universal. This it ounes to its
_beauxs esprits_, who hath reformed it in such a faschion that it miskeens
the garbe it had 50 or 60 years ago, witnesse _l'Historie du Serre_
(_francion_),[197] Montaign'es Essayes and du Barta'es Weeks,[198] who wt
others have written marvelously weill in the language of their tyme, but at
present is found no ways smooth nor agriable. We have sein the works of Du
Bartas, which, tho in langage at present ancient, is marvelously weill
exprest, large better than his translator Joseph Sylvester hath done.
Amongs his works their was one which I fancied exceidingly, _La Lepanthe de
Jacques 6, Roy d'Ecosse_, which he tornes in French, containing a narration
of that bloody wictory the Christians gained over the Turk, Octobre 1571,
the year before the massacre at Paris, on the Lepanto, which Howel in his
History of Venise describes at large. He speaks wt infinite respect of our
King, calling him among other stiles _Phoenix Ecossois_.
[197] _Francion_ interlined. _Histoire Comique de
Francion_, 1623-67. Sorel mentioned again p. 104. For de Serre,
see same page. I thought at first that here Serre might be Sieur,
but it is distinctly written, therefore perhaps _Francion_ is
interlined by mistake. The reference is to an early writer, De
Serres died in 1598. Sorel's _Francion_ was published in 1623.
[198] G. de Saluste, sieur du Bartas, 1544-1590, religious poet. His
_Divine Weeks_ were translated by Joshua Sylvester.
To returne to our French language, not wtout ground do we estime it the
Elegantest tongue. We have bein whiles amazed to sy [hear][199] whow
copiously and richly the poor peasants in their meiting on another would
expresse themselfes and compliment, their wery language bearing them to it;
so that a man might have sein more civility in their expressions (as to
their gesture its usually not wery seimly) then may be fund inthe first
compliments on a rencontre betuixt 2 Scotes Gentlemen tolerably weil breed.
Further in these that be ordinar gentlewomen only, theirs more breeding to
be sein then in some of our Contesses in Scotland. For their frinesse[200]
ennemy to a retired sullen nature they are commended be all; none wt whom
a person may move easily and sooner make his acquaintance then wt them, and
yet as they say wery difficult to board; the Englishwomen being plat
contrary. They wil dance wt him, theyle laugh and sport wt him, and use al
innocent freedome imaginable, and this rather wt strangers then their
oune....[201]
[199] Interlined.
[200] Freeness.
[201] Four lines erased in MS.
This much precisely for the French mony (only its not to be forgotten that
no goldsmith dare melt any propre French mony under the pain of hanging),
their langage, and their women: of the men we touched something already in
a comparison of them wt the Spaniard. I have caused Madame Daillé some
vinter nights sit doune and tell me tales, which I fand of the same very
stuffe wt our oune, beginning wt that usually _Il y avoit un Roy et une
Reine_, etc., only instead of our red dracons and giants they have
lougarous or war-woophs.[202] She told me on a tyme the tale or conte of
daupht Jock wt his _sotteries_, iust as we have it in Scotland. We have
laughten no litle at some.
[202] Loups-garou or were-wolves,
We saw the greatest aple we ever saw, which we had the curiosity to
measure, to measure about and fand it 18 large inches. The gourds are
monstrous great heir: we have sein them greater then any cannon bullet ever
we saw. We have eaten cormes[203] heir, which is a very poor fruit, tho the
peasants makes a drink of it they call cormet. In Octobre is the tyme of
their roots, as Riphets, tho they eat of them al summer throw, neips and
passeneips.[204]
[203] Sorb apples.
[204] Parsnips.
Let us mark the reason whey the Pope permits bordel houses at Rome, and
then let us sie who can liberat it from clashing immediatly wt the Aposles
rule, Romans 3, v. 8. O. sayes the Pope, the toleration of stues in this
place is the occasion of wery much good, and cuts short the occasion of
wery mutch evil, for if men, especially the Italian, who, besydes his
natural genius to Venery, is poussed by the heat of the country had not
vomen at their command to stanch them, its to be feared that they would
betake themselfes to Sodomy (for which stands the Apology of the
Archbischop of Casa at this day), Adultery, and sick like illicit
commixtions, since even notwtstanding of this licence we grant to hinder
them from the other, (for _ex duabus malis minus est eligendum_), we sie
some stil perpetrating the other. O brave, but since we sould not do evil
that good sould come theirof, either let us say this praetext to be false
and vicket, or the Aposles rule to be erroneous. Nixt if ye do it on so
good a account, whence comes it that the whores most buy their licence by a
100,000 livres a year they pay to your exchequer, whey have they not simply
their liberty since its a act, as ye say, of so good consequence?
The ancient inhabitants of Rome at that tyme when it became of Pagan
Christian seimes to me much viser then our reformers under Knox when we
past from Papisme to Protestantisme. They did not demolish the Heathen Idol
temples, as we furiously did Christian, but converted them to Christian
temples, amongs others witness the stately temple dedicat to the goddess
Fortune, much respected by the Romans, at present a church. Yea the
Italians boasts that they have cheated, robbed the Devil in converting that
hous which was consecrat for his service unto the service of the true God.
But all that heirs of our act laughts at it as madness.
Theirs a Scots Colledge at Rome.
I find that conclusion the Duke of Burgundy tried on a peasant, whom he
fand in a deip sleip in the fields as he returned from the hunting on a
tyme, wery good. On a tyme we fel a discoursing of those that are given to
riseng in their sleip and do things, whiles more exactly then give they
ware waking. I cannot forget on drollery. 2 gentlemen fell to lodge to
gither at one innes, the one began to plead for a bed by himselfe, since
the other would find him a wery ill bedfellow, for he was so much given to
hunting, that in the night he used to rise and cry up and doune the chambre
hobois, hobois, as on his dog; the other thought Il'e sy if I can put you
from that, wheiron he feigned he was iust of that temper in rising thorow
his sleip, and that he was so much given to his horses that he thought he
was dressing and speaking to them. Since it was so[205] they lay both
together; about midnight the one rises in his sleip begines to cry on his
doges; the other had brought a good whip to the bed wt him, makes himselfe
to rise as throw his sleip, fals to and whipes the other throw the house
like a companion,[206] whiles crying, Up, brouny; whiles, Sie the iade it
wil no stir. The other wakened son enough, crying for mercy, for he was not
a horse; the other, after he had whipt him soundly, made himselfe to waken,
wheiron the other fel a railing on him; the other excused himselfe wery
fairly, since he thought he was whiping his horses. In the interim the
other never rose to cry on his doges again.
[205] Interlined.
[206] Low fellow.
France in such abondance produces win, that seweral years if ye'el bring 2
punchions to the field as great as ye like, live them the on and they'le
let you carry as many graps wt you as the other wil hold.
They have in France the _chat sauuage_; the otter, which is excellent
furring; the Regnard, the Wolfe. In the mountaines of Dauphiné theirs both
_ours_ and _sangliers_, bear and boor.
Their doges are generally not so good as ours. Yet their a toune in
Bretagne which is garded by its dogs, which all the day ower they have
chaned, under night they loose, who compasses the toune al the night ower,
so that if either horse or man approach the city, they are in hazard to be
torn in peices.
The wolfes are so destructive to the sheip heir that if a man kill a wolfe
and take its head and its taille and carry it thorow the country willages
and little borrowes, the peasants as a reward will give him som egges, some
cheese, some milk, some wooll, according as they have it. They have also
many stratagemes to take the wolfe. Amongs others this: they dig a wery dip
pit, wheir they know a wolfe hantes; they cover it with faill,[207] fastens
a goose some wery quick, which by its crying attracks the wolfe who coming
to prey on the goose, zest[208] plumpes he in their, and they fell him
their on the morning.
[207] Turf.
[208] Just.
We have sein that witty satyre that Howel has about the end of his Venitian
History in French. The French Ministers of the Religion are exceedingly
given to publish their sermons, in that like to the English. Vitnesse
Daille'es sermons; Jean Sauvage, Ministre at Bergerac, betuixt Limosin
(wheir they eat so much bread when they can get it) and Perigord, dedicated
to Mr. de la Force, living at present their, Mareschal de France, father of
Mareschal Turaines lady: wt diverses others we have sein. We have sein a
catechisme of Mr. Drelincourt which we fancied exceedingly.
The halfe of France wt its revenues belongs to the Ecclesiasticks, yea, the
bueatifullest and the goodliest places. To confine our selfes wtin
Poictiers, the rents of whosse convents, men and women togither, wil make
above six 100 thousand livers a years, besydes what the bischop hath, to
wit, 80,000 livres a year. The Benedictines, a wery rich order as we have
marked, have 30,000 livres in rent; the Feuillans[209] 20,000; besydes what
the Jacobins, Cordeliers, Minims, thess de la Charité, Capucyns, Augustins,
the Chanoines of Ste. Croix, St. Radegonde, St. Peter, the cathedral of
Poictiers, Notre Dame la grande, St. Hilaires, wt other men and al the
women religious, have, being put togither wil make good my proposition.
[209 1] See p. 47, *note.
We had almost forgot the Jesuits, who, above 50 years ago, entred Poictiers
wt their staffes in their hand, not a 100 livres amongs them all, since
have wt their crafty dealings so augmented their Convent that they have
40,000 livres standing rent. Whow they come be this is not uneasy to
dewine, we toucht it a litle already. If any fat carcasse be on his
deathbed, they are sure to be their, undermine him wt all the slights
imaginable, wring donations in their faveurs from them, of which we know
and have heard seweral exemples: vitness the Abby at Bourdeaux, whom they
undermined, and he subtilly getting a grip of his testaments tore it and so
revocked his will. Also that testament so agitate by the Jesuits and the
sone of the deceased who was debauched before the Duke of Parme, the
Jesuits relaying on thesse words that the fathers Jesuits sould be his
heirs, providing that they gave his sone _ce qu'ils voudront_, what they
would: the Duk turning them against the Jesuits exponed them, that what
they would have themselfes that that sould be given to his sone.
Diverse others we have heard. The lawes of France wil hardly permit the
father to disinherit his sone, unless he can prove him guilty of some hy
ingratitude and disobedience against him, or that he hath attempted
something against the life of his father; that he is debaucht he cannot.
The custome among the great ones of the most part of the world is that they
cause any other of quality that comes to sy them be conveyed thorow their
stables to sy their horses, as also causeth them sy their doges, their
haucks, ther gardens. Particularly in Spaine the custome is such, that they
take special heed what horse or what dog ye praise most, and if ye
change[210] to say, O their is a brave horse, the horse wil be as soon at
your lodging in a gift as your selfe wil be.
[210] Chance.
We happened to discourse on night of fools and madmen, of their several
sortes, of the occasions, as love, study, vin, hypocondriack, melancholly,
etc. They told me of one at Marseilles who beleifed himselfe to be the
greatest King of the world, that all the shipes of the harbour, together wt
their waires, ware his; of another who really beleifeth himselfe to be made
of glasse, cryed horridly if any but approach him for fear they sould break
him. His friends, at the advice of some Doctor, took a great sand glasse
and brook it on tyme on his head as he was raging in that fit: seeing the
peices of glasse falling doune at his feet he cryed more hideously then
ever, that he was broken to peices, that his head was broken. After he had
calmed a litle they desyred his to consider that the glasse was broken, but
that he was not broken; and consequently that he was not glasse. On this
remonstrance he came to himselfe, and confessed he was not glasse. The same
was practicat on a nother who beleived himselfe to be lame.
We cannot forgett a story that happened at the bedlam at Paris. 2 gentlemen
out of curiosity coming to sie the madmen, the Keeper of the Hospital be
reason of some businesse he had could not go alongs wt them, whence he
ordains one of the fools that was besyde to go alongs wt them, and show
them al the madmen wt the occasions and nature of their madnese. The fool
carried them thorow them all, showing that their was on mad for love, their
another wt to much study, a third besottedly fool wt drunkness, a 4th
Hypocondriack, and so wt all the rest marvelous pertinently. At last as
they ware going out he sayd: Gentlemen, I beleife ye wondred at the folly
of many ye have sein; but theirs a fool (pointing at him) whom ye'el admire
more then them all, that poor fellow beleifes him selfe to be the beloved
Aposle St. John, but to let you sie that he is not St. John, and whow false
his beleife is, I that am St. Piter (for he chiefly held himselfe to be St.
Peter) who keips the gates of heaven never opend the door to let him in
yet. The gentlemen thought wery strange to find him so deiply fooll when
they reflected whow pertinently he had discoursed to them before and not
discovered the least foly. They ware informed that he was once a doctor in
the colledge of Sorbonne, and that to much study had reduced him to that.
It would appear he hes studied to profundly Peters primacy above the rest
of the Aposles.
The Protestant Churches throw Poictou keip a solemne fast 28 of Octobre, wt
the Papists St. Simons day. The occasion was to deprecate Gods wrath which
he showed he had conceived by reason he threathned them in sewerall places
wt Scarcity of his word and removing of his candlestick, since sewerall
temples ware throwen doune, as that at Partenay, etc. For that effect they
sent 4 of the Religion, the eminentest amongs them in the Province to the
King wt a supplication. We had 3 preachings. We eated no flech that day for
fear of giving occasion to the Papists to mock: we suped on a soup, fried
egges, roosted chaistains, and apples wt peirs.
Sewerall schollers have made paction wt the Dewil, under the Proviso he
would render them wery learned, which hath bein discovered. One at Tholouse
gave his promise to the Dewil, which having confessed, they resolve to
procede iudicially against him. Since the Dewil loves not iustic, they send
a messenger to the place wheir they made the pact to cite him to compeir
and answer. He not compairing they declaire him contumacious; and as they
procede to condemn him as guilty, behold a horrid bruit about the hous and
the obligation the lad had given him droops of the rigging[211] amongs the
mids of the auditors. We fand the story called _funeste resemblance_ not
il of the scholler in Lipswick University, who having killed on of his
companions was put to flie, wheiron after a long peregrinatione he came to
Coloigne, wheir to his misfortune was a young man whom he resembled so neir
that theirs no man but he would take on for the other. This young man had
ravished just at that same tyme a gentlewoman of great condition: now the
Lawes of Germany, as also of France, permits to pershue a _Ravisseiur_, tho
the women consent, if her parents contradict, criminelly for his life. On
this our scholler Proclus is slain in the streets for him; together with
what followes.
[211] Rooftree.
Thorow all Languedoc and Provence the olive tries is as common as the
walnuts in Poictou: oranges thorow much of France and in seweral places
China oranges. Lentils, the seeds rise and mile[212] growes abondantly
towards Saumer: the Papists finds them wery delicate in caresme or Lent.
Its wonderful to sie what some few degries laying neerer the sun fertilizes
a country.
[212] Mil, millet.
France is a country that produceth abondantly all that the heart of man can
desire, only they are obligded to fetch their spices (tho they furnish
other countries wt saffran which growes in seweral places of Poictou,
costes 15 livres the pound at the cheapest) from Arabia, their sugar from
America and the Barbado Islands: yet wtout ether of the tuo they could live
wery weill.
A man may live 10 years in France or he sy a French man drink their oune
Kings health. Amongs on another they make not a boast to call him[213]
_bougre, coquin, frippon_, etc. I have sein them in mockery drink to the
King of Frances coachhorses health.
[213] _i. e_. think nothing of calling him.
The plumdamy, heir prunecuite,[214] they dry so in a furnace.
[214] Prune, dried plum.
About the end of Octobre the peasants brings in their fruits to Poictiers
to sel, especially their Apples, and that in loadened chariots. The beggar
wifes and stirrows[215] ware sure to be their, piking them furth in
neiwfulles[216] on all sydes. I hav sein the peasents and them fall be
ears thegither, the lads wt great apples would have given him sick a slap
on the face that the cowll[217] would have bein almost like to greet; yet
wt his rung[218] he would have given them a sicker neck herring[219] over
the shoulders. I am sure that the halfe of them was stollen from many of
them or they got them sold.
[215] Lads, boys.
[216] Handfuls.
[217] Fellow. See Jamieson's _Dict_, s.v. 'Coulie.'
[218] Staff.
[219] 'A smart wipe.' I have not traced the expression 'neck herring.'
When we have had occasion to tel the Frenchman what our Adwocats would get
at a consultation, 10,20 crounes, whiles they could not but look on it as a
abuse, and think that our Justice was wery badly regulate and constitute.
Thorow France a Adwocat dare take no more than a _quartescus_[220] for a
consultation, but for that he multiplies them; for a psisitians advice as
much. Surely if it be enquired whose ablest to do it, France by 20 degries
might be more prodigal this way then we are; but their are wiser. Theris
above 200 Adwocats at Poictiers. Of these that gets not employment they
say, he never lost a cause, whey, because he never plaid one. Also, that
theirs not good intelligence betuixt the Jugde and him, whey, because they
do not speak togither.
[220] Quart d'ecu, a silver coin, quarter of an écu. See
Introduction, p. xlii. The cardecue was a common coin in Scotland.
As to the privilege of primogeniture in France its thus, that the eldest
carries away 2 parts of thrie: as, for instance, the father is a man of
15,000 livres a year, the eldest hath 10,000, the other 5000 goes amongs
the cadets.
Al the Capital tounes of provinces of France are frie from Taille.[221]
[221] A tax on persons not noble or ecclesiastic or exempted.
The wood cannot be but wholesomer to dresse meat wt then our coall: also
they impute the oftner contagions that happens in Brittain to the smook of
our coall, which grossens and thickens et,[222] by consequence infectes the
air, their wood smooking wery little.
[222] For 'it.'
The French cryes out against the wanity of our King who most be served by
his subjects on their knees, since that the knees sould be keipt to God
alone; as also their King more absolute then [he] tho not served so. Yea
some have bein so impudent as to impute (count)[223] the murder of our late
King (which 1000 tymes hath bein casten up to me) as a iust iudgement of
God on them for their pride. I cannot forget whow satyrically they have
told this, saying that the peaple of great Britain keip their Kings at
their beck, at their pleasure not only to bereave them of their croune but
also of their life. I endewored to show them that they understood not
things aright, that the same had bein practicat in France on Henry the 4t:
the cases are not indeed alike, since our King was brought to a Schaffold,
the other slain be a Assasin, Ravelliak, and regretted. To make the case
iump the better, I remitted them to ther History to sie wt what publick
consent Henry 3d was slain be Clement the Jacobine, yet heir their was no
iudiciall procedure as against our King. Whence I had recourse to
Chilperick, whom the peaple, tho legittime heir, first deposed then cowed
him, and thrust him in a Monastry surrogating Pepin his brother in his
roome. This wexed them, they could never answer this sufficiently.
[223] Interlined.