Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromartie, Knight Part 13

[243] _Avec leur palefroy guorrier_--rather, "with their prancing palfrey." Guorrier from Gr. ?a????--haughty.

[244] Cf. Heb. xi. 23, "a proper child."

[245] _Celle laquelle l'auroit prins pour son devot_--rather, "her, who had chosen him as her devoted servant."

[246] Book i. chap. 57.

[247] Fr. _faire versure_ = Lat. _facere versuram_ (Cic. Att. v. 1, -- 2), to borrow money to pay another debt (F. W. S.).

[248] Caes. B. G. vi. 19.

[249] "_Deum maxime Mercurium colunt_" (B. G. vi. 17) (Ibid.).

[250] "_Galli se omnes ab Dite patre prognatos dic.u.n.t_" (B. G. vi. 18).

Dis is called _pere des escuz_, as identical with Plutus, the G.o.d of hidden wealth (_Ibid._).

[251] _Exclusively_, _i.e._, "I will affirm it, but not go to the stake for it" (F. W. S.).

[252] A fine pa.s.sage in one of South's _Sermons_ was evidently suggested by the above chapter in Rabelais. "The World is maintained by Intercourse; and the whole Course of Nature is a great Exchange, in which one good Turn is and ought to be the stated Price of another. If you consider the Universe as one Body, you shall find Society and Conversation to supply the Office of the Blood and Spirits; and it is Grat.i.tude that makes them circulate. Look over the whole Creation, and you shall see that the Band or Cement that holds together all the Parts of this great and glorious Fabric is Grat.i.tude, or something like it: you may observe it in all the Elements, for does not the Air feed the Flame? and does not the Flame at the same time warm and enlighten the Air? Is not the Sea always sending forth, as well as taking in? And does not the Earth quit scores with all the Elements, in the n.o.ble Fruits and Productions that issue from it? And in all the Light and Influence that the Heavens bestow upon this lower World, though the lower World cannot equal their Benefaction, yet with a Kind of grateful Return, it reflects those Rays that it cannot recompense: so that there is some Return however, though there can be no Requital.... In short, Grat.i.tude is the great Spring that sets all the Wheels of Nature agoing; and the whole Universe is supported by giving and returning, by Commerce and Commutation. And now, thou ungrateful Brute, thou Blemish to Mankind, and Reproach to thy Creation; what shall we say of thee, or to what shall we compare thee? For thou art an Exception from all the visible World; neither the Heavens above nor the Earth beneath afford anything like thee: and therefore, if thou wouldest find thy Parallel, go to h.e.l.l, which is both the Region and the Emblem of Ingrat.i.tude; for besides thyself, there is nothing but h.e.l.l that is always receiving and never restoring" (I. SERM. xi. "_Of the odious Sin of Ingrat.i.tude_").

[253] "Nec fratris radiis obnoxia surgere Luna" (Virg. _Georg._ i. 396) (F. W. S.).

[254] _Influence_, much used as an astrological term. Cf. Milton:

"Taught the fix'd their _influence_ malignant when to shower."

_Par. Lost_, x. 662.

"Bending one way their precious _influence_."

_Hymn on the Nativity_, 71.

(_Ibid._).

[255] _Plato_ never pretends that the "music of the spheres" can be heard. He adopts the theory to some extent from the Pythagoreans.

Aristotle (_de Coelo_, ii. 9), that the noise caused by the movements of the heavenly bodies is so prodigious and continuous, that, being accustomed to it from our birth, we do not notice it. The only notice in Plato that can be construed into a statement about audible music of the spheres is in _Rep._ x., where he speaks of a siren standing upon each of the circles of the planetary system uttering one note in one tone; and from all the eight notes there results a single harmony (F. W. S.).

[256] Book iii. chaps. 3, 4.

[257] It is quite possible that Motteux, who published the third book of Rabelais after Urquhart's death, is responsible for some of the interpolations.

[258] Book iii. chap 13. _Fontenay le Comte_ in Lower Poitou and _Niort_ were noted for their busy yearly fairs. There can be doubt that the above pa.s.sage was suggested to Rabelais by what St Jerome records of the experience of St Hilarion in the desert. "Sic attentuatus," he says, "[jejunio et vigiliis], et in tantum exeto corpore, ut ossibus vix haereret, quadam nocte cpit infantum audire vagitus, balatus pecorum, mugitus boum, planctum quasi mulierum, leonum rugitus, murmur exercitus, et prorsus variarum portenta voc.u.m," etc. (_Vita Sancti Hilarionis_). In Burton's _Anatomy of Melancholy_ (iii. 4. 1. 2) there is the following reference to the same pa.s.sage: "Monks, Anachorites, and the like, after much emptiness become melancholy, vertiginous, they think they hear strange noises, confer with Hob-goblins, Devils.... _Hilarion_, as _Hierome_ reports in his life, and _Athanasius of Antonius_, was so bare with fasting, _that the skin did scarce stick to the bones_; for want of vapours (_sic_) he could not sleep, and for want of sleep became idle-headed, _heard every night infants cry, Oxen low, Wolves howl, Lions roar (as he thought), clattering of chains, strange voices, and the like illusions of Devils_." It is probable also that Rabelais had read the following pa.s.sage in the _Life of Geta_, by aelius Spartia.n.u.s (c. A.D. 317): "Familiare illi fuit has quaestiones grammaticis proponere, ut dicerent, singula animalia quomodo vocem emitterent, velut, Agni balant, porcelli grumniunt, palumbes minurriunt, ursi saeviunt, leones rugiunt, leopardi rictant, elephanti barriunt, ranae coaxant, equi hinniunt, asini rudunt, tauri mugiunt, easque de veteribus approbare." Nor is it likely that Rabelais was unacquainted with the verses in Teofilo Folengo's (1491-1544) _Merlini Cocaii Macaronicon_, which run thus:

"Nam Leo rugitum mitt.i.t, Lupus ac ululatum, Bos boat, et uitrescit equus, Gallusque cucullat, Sgnavolat et Gattus, baiat Canis, Ursus adirat, Rancagat Oca, rudit Mullus, sed raggiat Asellus; Denique quodque animal propria c.u.m voce gridabat."

_Macaronea_, xx.

[259] In the introduction to this volume Motteux says that Sir Thomas Urquhart was "a learned physician." It is difficult to understand what could have given rise to such a statement. Sir Thomas had many projects for the benefit of the human race, but there is no evidence of his ever having cherished that of combating disease. One cannot help thinking of the magniloquent terms in which he would have extolled his remedies, if the fates had led him to the concoction of patent medicines. It is doubtful, however, whether he would have had what is technically known as "a good bed-side manner." It is quite possible that Motteux simply meant that Sir Thomas was well acquainted with medical science, and not that he was a physician by profession. Yet his words have often been understood as a.s.serting the latter. Thus we find the erroneous statement in Granger's _Biographical Dictionary_, the Amsterdam (1741) edition of Rabelais, and Sir John Hawkins' _Life of Johnson_, p. 294.

[260] Both Ozell and Motteux figure in Pope's _Dunciad_, in i. 296, and ii. 412, respectively.

APPENDICES

I. PRIMITIVE FATHERS AND MOTHERS OF THE NAME OF URQUHART.

II. THE ADMIRABLE CRICHTON.

APPENDIX I

THE NAMES OF THE CHIEFS OF THE NAME OF URQUHART, AND OF THEIR PRIMITIVE FATHERS; as by Authentick Records and Tradition they were from time to time through the various Generations of that Family successively conveyed, till the present yeer 1652 (p. 143).

The ancestors of Sir Thomas, for whose existence there is evidence apart from his a.s.sertions, are indicated by their names being printed in italics. If the editor of the _Tracts_ (1774) were to believed, the italics would have to begin with George, No. 138 in the list. The fact that the names in this list are more numerous than those in the list which follows, is to be explained by brothers succeeding each other occasionally, when there was no son to inherit the dignity of chieftainship.

1. _Adam._ 2. _Seth._ 3. _Enos._ 4. _Cainan._ 5. _Mahalaleel._ 6. _Jared._ 7. _Enoch._ 8. _Methusalah._ 9. _Lamech._ 10. _Noah._ 11. _j.a.phet._ 12. _Javan._ 13. Penuel.

14. Tycheros.

15. Pasiteles.

16. Esormon.

17. Cratynter.

18. Thrasymedes.

19. Evippos.

20. Cleotinus.

21. Litoboros.

22. Apodemos.

23. Bathybulos.

24. Phrenedon.

25. Zameles.

26. Choronomos.

27. Leptologon.

28. Aglaetos.

29. Megalonus.

30. Evemeros.

31. Callophron.

32. Arthmios.

33. Hypsegoras.

34. Autarces.

35. Evages.

36. Atarbes.

37. Pamprosodos.

38. Gethon.

39. Holocleros.

40. Molin.

41. Epitomon.

42. Hypotyphos.