text:
Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/39

Viscount Fitzwalter, Lord of Egremont and of Burnell, Knight of the most noble Order of the Garter, Iustice of the forrests and Chases from Trent Southward; Captain of the Gentleman Pensioners of the House of the QUEENE our Soveraigne Lady.

FTER that I had taken upon me (right Honourable) in manner of that unlearned and foolish Poet, Cherillus, who rashly and unadvisedly wrought a big volume in verses, of the valiant prowesse of Alexander the Great, to translate this present booke, contayning the Metamorphosis of Lucius Apuleius; being mooved thereunto by the right pleasant pastime and delectable matter therein; I eftsoones consulted with myself, to whom I might best offer so pleasant and worthy a work, devised by the author, it being now barbarously

title: Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/39


text:
Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/40

 and simply framed in our English tongue. And after long deliberation had, your honourable lordship came to my remembrance, a man much more worthy, than to whom so homely and rude a translation should be presented. But when I again remembred the jesting and sportfull matter of the booke, unfit to be offered to any man of gravity and wisdome, I was wholly determined to make no Epistle Dedicatory at all; till as now of late perswaded thereunto by my friends, I have boldly enterprised to offer the same to your Lordship, who as I trust wil accept the same, than if it did entreat of some serious and lofty matter, light and merry, yet the effect thereof tendeth to a good and vertuous moral, as in the following Epistle to the reader may be declared. For so have all writers in times past employed their travell and labours, that their posterity might receive some fruitfull profit by the same. And therfore the poets feined not their fables in vain, considering that children in time of their first studies, are very much allured thereby to proceed to more grave and deepe studies and disciplines, whereas their mindes would quickly loath the wise and prudent workes of learned men, wherein in such unripe years they take no spark

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/40


text:
Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/41

 of delectation at all. And not only that profit ariseth to children by such feined fables, but also the vertues of men are covertly thereby commended, and their vices discommended and abhorred. For by the fable of Actaeon, where it is feigned that he saw Diana washing her selfe in a well, hee was immediately turned into an Hart, and so was slain of his own Dogs; may bee meant, That when a man casteth his eyes on the vain and soone fading beauty of the world, consenting thereto in his minde, hee seemeth to bee turned into a brute beast, and so to be slain by the inordinate desire of his owne affects. By Tantalus that stands in the midst of the floud Eridan, having before him a tree laden with pleasant apples, he being neverthelesse always thirsty and hungry, betokeneth the insatiable desires of covetous persons. The fables of Atreus, Thiestes, Tereus and Progne signifieth the wicked and abhominable facts wrought and attempted by mortall men. The fall of Icarus is an example to proud and arrogant persons, that weeneth to climb up to the heavens. By Mydas, who obtained of Bacchus, that all things which he touched might be gold, is carped the foul sin of avarice. By Phaeton, that unskilfully took in hand to rule the chariot of the Sunne, are represented

title: Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/41


text:
Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/42

 those persons which attempt things passing their power and capacity. By Castor and Pollux, turned into a signe in heaven called Gemini, is signified, that vertuous and godly persons shall be rewarded after life with perpetuall blisse. And in this feined jest of Lucius Apuleius is comprehended a figure of mans life, ministring most sweet and delectable matter, to such as shall be desirous to reade the same. The which if your honourable lordship shall accept ant take in good part, I shall not onely thinke my small travell and labour well employed, but also receive a further comfort to attempt some more serious matter, which may be more acceptable to your Lordship: desiring the same to excuse my rash and bold enterprise at this time, as I nothing doubt of your Lordships goodnesse. To whome I beseech Almighty God to impart long life, with encrease of much honour.

From Vniversity Colledge in Oxenforde, the xviij. of September, 1566.

Your Honours most bounden,

title: Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/42


text:
Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/47

UCIUS APULEIUS African, an excellent follower of Plato his sect, born in Madaura, a Countrey sometime inhabited by the Romans, and under the jurisdiction of Syphax, scituate and lying on the borders of Numidia and Getulia, whereby he calleth himself half a Numidian and half a Getulian: and Sidonius named him the Platonian Madaurence: his father called Theseus had passed all offices of dignity in his countrey with much honour. His mother named Salvia was of such excellent vertue, that she passed all the Dames of her time, borne of an ancient house, and descended from the philosopher Plutarch, and Sextus his nephew. His wife called Prudentila was endowed with as much vertue and riches as any woman might be. Hee himselfe was of an high and comely stature, gray eyed, his haire yellow, and a beautiful personage. He flourished in Carthage in the time of Iolianus Avitus and Cl. Maximus Proconsuls, where he spent his youth in learning the liberall sciences, and much profited under his masters there, whereby not without cause hee calleth himself the Nource of Carthage, and the celestial Muse and venerable mistresse of Africke. Soone after, at Athens (where in times past the well of all doctrine flourished) he tasted many of the cups of the muses, he learned the Poetry, Geometry, Musicke, Logicke, and the universall knowledge of Philosophy, and studied not in

title: Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/47


text:
Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/48

 vaine the nine Muses, that is to say, the nine noble and royal disciplines.

Immediately after he went to Rome, and studied there the Latine tongue, with such labour and continuall study, that he achieved to great eloquence, and was known and approved to be excellently learned, whereby he might worthily be called Polyhistor, that is to say, one that knoweth much or many things.

And being thus no lesse endued with eloquence, than with singular learning, he wrote many books for them that should come after: whereof part by negligence of times be now intercepted and part now extant, doe sufficiently declare, with how much wisdome and doctrine hee flourished, and with how much vertue hee excelled amongst the rude and barbarous people. The like was Anacharsis amongst the most luskish Scythes. But amongst the Bookes of Lucius Apuleius, which are perished and prevented, howbeit greatly desired as now adayes, one was intituled Banquetting questions, another entreating of the nature of fish, another of the generation of beasts, another containing his Epigrams, another called 'Hermagoras': but such as are now extant are the foure books named 'Floridorum', wherein is contained a flourishing stile, and a savory kind of learning, which delighteth, holdeth, and rejoiceth the reader marvellously; wherein you shall find a great variety of things, as leaping one from another: One excellent and copious Oration, containing all the grace and vertue of the art Oratory, where he cleareth himself of the crime of art Magick, which was slanderously objected against him by his Adversaries, wherein is contained such force of eloquence and doctrine, as he seemeth to passe and excell himselfe. There is another booke of the god of the spirit of Socrates, whereof St. Augustine maketh mention in his booke of the definition of spirits, and description of men. Two other books of the opinion of Plato, wherein is briefly contained that which before was largely expressed. One booke of Cosmography, comprising many things of Aristotles Meteors. The Dialogue of Trismegistus, translated by him out of Greeke into Latine, so fine, that it rather seemeth with more eloquence turned into Latine, than it was before written in Greeke. But

title: Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/48


text:
Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/49

 principally these eleven Bookes of the 'Golden Asse', are enriched with such pleasant matter, with such excellency and variety of flourishing tales, that nothing may be more sweet and delectable, whereby worthily they may be intituled The Bookes of the 'Golden Asse', for the passing stile and matter therein. For what can be more acceptable than this Asse of Gold indeed. Howbeit there be many who would rather intitule it 'Metamorphosis', that is to say, a transfiguration or transformation, by reason of the argument and matter within.

title: Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/49


text: Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/50

title: Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/50


text:
Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/51

THAT I to thee some joyous jests
 * may show in gentle gloze,

And frankly feed thy bended eares
 * with passing pleasant prose:

So that thou daine in seemly sort
 * this wanton booke to view,

That is set out and garnisht fine,
 * with written phrases new.

I will declare how one by hap
 * his humane figure lost,

And how in brutish formed shape,
 * his loathed life he tost.

And how he was in course of time
 * from such a state unfold,

Who eftsoone turn'd to pristine shape
 * his lot unlucky told.

HAT and who he was attend a while, and you shall understand that it was even I, the writer of mine own Metamorphosie and strange alteration of figure. Hymettus, Athens, Isthmia, Ephire Tenaros, and Sparta, being fat and fertile soiles (as I pray you give credit to the bookes of more everlasting fame) be places where myne antient progeny and linage did sometime flourish: there I say, in Athens, when I was yong, I went first to schoole.

title: Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/51


text:
Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/52

 Soone after (as a stranger) I arrived at Rome, whereas by great industry, and without instruction of any schoolmaster, I attained to the full perfection of the Latine tongue. Behold, I first crave and beg your pardon, lest I should happen to displease or offend any of you by the rude and rusticke utterance of this strange and forrein language. And verily this new alteration of speech doth correspond to the enterprised matter whereof I purpose to entreat, I will set forth unto you a pleasant Grecian feast. Whereunto gentle Reader if thou wilt give attendant eare, it will minister unto thee such delectable matter as thou shalt be contented withall.

title: Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/52


text:
Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/43

HEN that I had (gentle Reader) slightly here and there runne over the pleasant and delectable jeasts of Lucius Apuleius (a man of antient descent, and endued with singular learning) written in such a franke and flourishing stile, as he seemed to have the Muses at his will, to feed and maintaine his pen. And when againe I perceived the matter to minister such exceeding plenty of mirth, as never in my judgement the like hath been shewed by any other, I purposed according to my slender knowledge (though it were rudely, and farre disagreeing from the fine and excellent doings now adayes) to translate the same into our vulgar tongue, to the end that amongst so many sage and serious works (as every man well nigh endeavour daily to encrease) there might bee some fresh and pleasant matter to recreate the mindes of the Readers withall. Howbeit I was eftsoones driven from my purpose by two causes: First, perceiving that the Author had written his work in so darke and high a stile, in so strange and absurd words, and in such new invented phrases, as hee seemed rather to set it forth to shew his magnificencie of prose, than to participate his doings to other. Secondly, fearing least the translation of this present Booke (which seemeth a meere jeast and fable, and a Worke worthy to be laughed at, by reason of the vanity of the Author) might be contemned and despised of all men, and so consequently I to be had in derision, to occupie my selfe in such frivolous and trifling toyes. But on the other side, when I had throughly learned the intent of the Author, and the pur-

title: Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/43


text:
Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/44

 pose why hee invented so sportfull a jest, I was verily per- swaded that my small travell should not onely be accepted by many, but the matter it selfe allowed and praised of all. Wherefore I intend, God willing, as nigh as I can, to utter and open the meaning thereof, to the simple and ignorant, whereby they may not take the same, as a thing only to jest and laugh at (for the fables of JEsop and the feigning of Poets were never written for that purpose) but by the pleasantnesse thereof bee rather induced to the knowledge of their present estate, and thereby transforme themselves into the right and perfect shape of men. The argument of the book is, how Lucius Apuleius the Author himselfe travelled into Thessaly, being a region in Greece, where all the women for the most part bee such wonderfull Witches, that they can transforme men into the figure of brute beasts : Where after he had continued a few dayes, by the mighty force of a violent confection hee was changed into a miserable Asse, and nothing might reduce him to his wonted shape but the eating of a Rose, which after the indurance of infinite sorrow, at length he obtained by prayer. Verily under the wrap of this transformation is taxed the life of mortall men, when as we suffer our mindes so to bee drowned in the sensuall lusts of the flesh, and the beastly pleasure thereof (which aptly may be called the violent confection of Witches) that wee lose wholly the use of reason and vertue, which properly should be in man, and play the parts of brute and savage beasts. By like occasion we reade, how divers of the companions of Vlysses were turned by the marvellous power of Circe into swine. And finde we not in Scripture, that Nabuchadnezzar the ninth King of Babylon, by reason of his great dominions and realmes, fell into such exceeding pride, that he was suddenly transformed of Almighty God into an horrible monster, having the head of an Oxe, the feet of a Beare, and the taile of Lion, and did eat hay as a Beast. But as Lucius Apuleius was changed into his humane shape by a Rose, the companions of Vlysses by great intercession, and Nabuchadnezzar by the continual prayers of Daniel, wher- by they knew themselves, and lived after a good and

title: Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/44


text:
Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/45

 vertuous life : so can we never bee restored to the right figure of our selves, except we taste and eat the sweet Rose of reason and vertue, which the rather by mediation of praier we may assuredly attaine. Againe, may not the meaning of this worke be altered and turned in this sort : A man desirous to apply his minde to some excellent art, or given to the study of any of the sciences, at the first appeareth to himselfe an asse without wit, without know- ledge, and not much unlike a brute beast, till such time as by much paine and travell he hath atchieved to the perfectnesse of the same, and tasting the sweet floure and fruit of his studies, doth thinke himselfe well brought to the right and very shape of a man.

Finally, the metamorphosie of Lucius Apuleius may be resembled to youth without discretion, and his reduction to age possessed with wisedome and vertue.

Now since this booke of Lucius is a figure of mans life, and toucheth the nature and manners of mortall men, egg- ing them forward from their Asinall forme, to their humane and perfect shape, beside the pleasant and delectable jests therein contained, I trust if my simple translation be no- thing accepted, yet the matter it selfe shall be esteemed by such as not onely delight to please their fancies in reading the same, but also take a patterne thereby to regenerate their minds from brutish and beastly custome. Howbeit I have not so exactly passed through the Author, as to point every sentence according as it is in Latine, or so absolutely translated every word as it lieth in the prose, (for so the French and Spanish translators have not done) considering the same in our vulgar tongue would have appeared very obscure and darke, and thereby consequently loathsome to the Reader, but nothing erring as I trust from the true and naturall meaning of the Author, have used more common and familiar words, yet not so much as I might doe, for the plainer setting forth of the same. But howsoever it be, gentle Reader, I pray thee take it in good part, considering that for thee I have taken this paine, to the intent that thou mayst read the same with pleasure.

title: Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/45


text: Harmonium (Stevens)/Ploughing on Sunday

title: Harmonium (Stevens)/Ploughing on Sunday


text: The Poetical Works of Robert Burns/The Auld Farmer's New-Year Morning Salutation to his Auld Mare Maggie


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Introduction

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Introduction


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Dedication

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Dedication


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/To the Reader


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Life of Lucius Apuleius


text:
Page:R L Stevenson 1917 Familiar studies of men and books.djvu/119

late years the name of Walt Whitman has been a good deal bandied about in books and magazines. It has become familiar both in good and ill repute. His works have been largely bespattered with praise by his admirers, and cruelly mauled and mangled by irreverent enemies. Now, whether his poetry is good or bad as poetry, is a matter that may admit of a difference of opinion without alienating those who differ. We could not keep the peace with a man who should put forward claims to taste and yet depreciate the choruses in Samson Agonistes; but, I think, we may shake hands with one who sees no more in Walt Whitman's volume, from a literary point of view, than a farrago of incompetent essays in a wrong direction. That may not be at all our own opinion. We may think that, when a work contains many unforgettable phrases, it cannot be altogether devoid of literary merit. We may even


text:
Page:R L Stevenson 1917 Familiar studies of men and books.djvu/156

 both take and leave, who cannot let a single opportunity pass by without some unworthy and unmanly thought, I should have as great difficulty, and neither more nor less, in recommending the works of Whitman as in lending them Shakespeare, or letting them go abroad outside of the grounds of a private asylum.


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Preface

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Preface


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 1

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 1


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 2

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 2


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 3

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 3


text:
Page:R L Stevenson 1917 Familiar studies of men and books.djvu/120

 see passages of a high poetry here and there among its eccentric contents. But when all is said, Walt Whitman is neither a Milton nor a Shakespeare; to appreciate his works is not a condition necessary to salvation; and I would not disinherit a son upon the question, nor even think much the worse of a critic, for I should always have an idea what he meant.

What Whitman has to say is another affair from how he says it. It is not possible to acquit any one of defective intelligence, or else stiff prejudice, who is not interested by Whitman's matter and the spirit it represents. Not as a poet, but as what we must call (for lack of a more exact expression) a prophet, he occupies a curious and prominent position. Whether he may greatly influence the future or not, he is a notable symptom of the present. As a sign of the times, it would be hard to find his parallel. I should hazard a large wager, for instance, that he was not unacquainted with the works of Herbert Spencer; and yet where, in all the history books, shall we lay our hands on two more incongruous contemporaries? Mr. Spencer so decorous—I had almost said, so dandy—in dissent; and Whitman, like a large shaggy dog, just unchained, scouring the beaches of the world and baying at the moon. And when was an echo more curiously like a satire, than


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 4

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 4


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 5

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 5


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 6

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 6


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 7

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 7


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 8

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 8


text:
Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/17

 Ephesus, who has wandered from Petronius even unto Rabelais? To what admirable purpose is the Sermo Milesius handled in the Decamerone, to which Apuleius himself contributed one delectable tale! Did not the genius of Balzac devise a monument proper to its honourable antiquity in the Contes Drolatiques? And yet the second century was its golden age, and none so generously enhanced its repute as Apuleius. His masterpiece, in truth, is magnificently interlaced with jests, sometimes bound to the purpose of the story by the thinnest of thin threads, more often attached merely for their own or for ornament's sake. But not only thus is he separate from his model. Though he is romantic in style and temper alike—and romanticism is an affair of treatment rather than of material—he never loses touch with actuality. He wrote with an eye upon the realities of life. Observation was a force more potent with him than tradition. If his personages and incidents are wholly imaginary, he could still give them a living semblance by a touch of intimacy or a suggestion of familiar detail. Compare his characters to Lucian's, and measure the gulf between the two! Lucian's Abrœa is a warning voice—that, and no more. Byrrhena, on the other hand, is a great lady, sketched, with a quick perception of her kind, centuries before literature concerned itself with the individual. And is not Milo, the miser, leagues nearer the possibility of life than Hipparchus? Even Palæstra, despite the ingenuity of one episode, is not for an instant comparable in charm and humour to Fotis, most complaisant of serving-maids. Nor is it only in the pourtrayal of character that Apuleius proves his observation. There are many scenes

title: Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/17


text:
Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/18

 whose truthful simplicity is evidence of experience. When Lucius, arrived in Hypata, goes to the market to buy him fish, he encounters an old fellow-student—Pythias by name—already invested with the authority and insignia of an ædile. Now he, being a veritable jack-in-office, is enraged that Lucius has made so ill a bargain, and overturning his fish, bids his attendants stamp it under foot, so that the traveller loses supper and money too. The incident is neither apposite nor romantic; it is no more Milesian than mystical; but it bears the very pressure of life, and you feel that it was transferred straight from a note-book. Again, where shall you find a franker piece of realism than the picture of the mill, whereto the luckless Ass was bound? Very ugly and evil-favoured were the men, covered only with ragged clouts; and how horrible a spectacle the horses, with their raw necks, their hollow flanks, their broken ribs!

The Greek author, disdaining atmosphere, is content to set out his incidents in a logical sequence. Apuleius has enveloped his world of marvels in a heavy air of witchery and romance. You wander with Lucius across the hills and through the dales of Thessaly. With all the delight of a fresh curiosity you approach its far-seen towns. You journey at midnight under the stars, listening in terror for the howling of the wolves, or the stealthy ambush. At other whiles, you sit in the robbers' cave, and hear the ancient legends of Greece retold. The spring comes on, and 'the little birds chirp and sing their steven melodiously.' Secret raids, ravished brides, valiant rescues, the gayest of intrigues—these are the diverse matters of this many-coloured book. The play of fancy, the variety of style, the fertility of resource are inex-

title: Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/18


text:
Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/19

 haustible. Mythology is lifted into life, and life itself transformed to mystery at the wizard's touch. The misery and terror of the Ass's life are intercepted by the story of Cupid and Psyche, set forth with rare beauty and distinction of style. And yet this interlude, exquisitely planned and phrased, which suggested a worthless play to Tom Heywood, and has been an inspiration to many poets from Mrs. Tighe to Mr. Bridges, is the one conspicuous fault of the book. Admirable in itself, it is out of proportion as well as out of key, and though you turn to it again and again for its own sake, you skip it industriously when it keeps you from robbery and witchcraft. But the most remarkable characteristic of The Golden Ass is the ever-present element of sorcery, of the Macabre as Mr. Pater calls it. Grim spectres and horrid ghosts stalk through its pages. The merriest Milesian jest turns sudden to the terror of death and corruption. The very story which Boccaccio borrowed is shifted by Apuleius to a weird conclusion. The baker, having most wittily avenged his wife's deceit, is lured into a chamber by a meagre, ragged, ill-favoured woman, her hair scattering upon her face, and when the servants burst open the door to find their master, behold! no woman, but only the baker hanging from a rafter dead! And where for pure horror will you match Meroe's mutilation of Socrates? Secretly the witch attacks him in his sleep, drives her sword deep into his neck, and dragging out his heart, stops the wound with a sponge. Aristomenes, unwilling witness

title: Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/19


text:
Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/20

 of the cruelty, half believes it a dream, and gladly they resume the journey, until, when Socrates goes to the river to drink, the sponge falls out and with it the last, faint pulse of life. Again, when Thelyphron watches in the chamber of the dead, lest witches should bite off morsels of the dead man's face, and, falling asleep at sight of a weasel, loses his ears and nose, who so callous as to feel no shudder of alarm? But the most terrific apparition of all is the obscene priest of the Syrian Goddess, with his filthy companions carrying the Divine Image from village to village, and clanging their cymbals to call the charitable. This grimy episode, with its sequent orgies, is related with an incomparably full humour which, despite its Oriental barbarity, is unmatched in literature.

Indeed there is scarce a scene without its ghostly enchantment, its supernatural intervention. And herein you may detect the personal predilection of Apuleius. The infinite curiosity wherewith Lucius pries into witchcraft and sorcery was shared by his author. The hero transformed suffered his many and grievous buffetings because he always coveted an understanding of wizardry and spells; and Apuleius, in an age devoted to mysticism, was notorious for a magic-monger. Seriously it was debated, teste St. Augustine, whether Christ or he wrought the greater marvels: and though the shape wherein the romance is cast induced a confusion of author and hero, it is recorded that Apuleius was a zealous magician, and doubtless it is himself, not Lucius, he pictures in his last book among the initiate. In the admirable description of Isis and her visitation, as of the ceremonies wherein he was admitted to the secret worship of the Goddess, he departs entirely from his Greek

title: Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/20


text:
Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/21

 original. Here, indeed, we have a fragment of autobiography. When in 158, at the dramatic moment of an adventurous career, Apuleius delivered his Apology—pro se de magia—before Claudius Maximus, he confessed that he had been initiated into all the sacred rites of Greece, and had squandered the better part of a comfortable fortune in mysticism and the grand tour. The main accusation was that he had won his wife—a respectable and wealthy widow—by magic arts. He was also charged with other acts of witchcraft and enchantment. Thattus, it was said, and a free-born woman had swooned in his presence: a piece of superstition which reminds you of Cotton Mather. But, replied Apuleius, with excellent humour and a scepticism worthy of Reginald Scot, they were epileptics, who could stand in the presence of none save a magician. In brief, we cannot appreciate The Golden Ass, until we realise the modern spirit of curiosity which possessed its author. The lecturer's fame well-nigh outran the writer's. Apuleius travelled the length of civilised Africa with his orations, as the popular lecturer of to-day invades America; and the Majesty of Æsculapius, a favourite subject, was an excellent occasion for his familiar mysticism. He had been as intimately at home in the nineteenth century as in the second. Were he alive to-day Paris would have been his field, and he the undisputed master of Decadence and Symbolism. The comparison is close at all points. Would he not have delighted in the Black Mass, as celebrated on the heights of Mont Parnasse? Like too many among the makers of modern French literature he was an alien writing an alien tongue. His curiosity of diction, his unfailing

title: Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/21


text:
Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/22

 loyalty to speech, his eager search after the strange—and living—word, his love of an art which knows no concealment—these qualities proclaim the Decadent. And that Symbolist is wayward indeed who finds not matter for his fancy in the countless stories, which a perverse ingenuity has twisted a hundred times into allegory.

Such the author and his book. And when William Adlington, in the untried youth of English prose, undertook the translation of The Golden Asse, you would have thought no apter enterprise possible. Primitive and Decadent approach artin the same temper. Each is of necessity inclined to Euphuism. In the sixteenth century the slang, the proverb, the gutter phrase, which Apuleius brought back to the Latin tongue were not yet sifted from English by the pedantry of scholars. But William Adlington, though an Elizabethan, was something of a purist. To be sure, he was unable to purge his diction of colour and variety, and his manner was far better suited to the rendering of Apuleius than the prose of to-day, which has passed through the sieve of the eighteenth century. But with an excellent modesty he pleads acceptance for his simple translation. Though he applauds the ' franke and flourishing stile' of his author, 'as he seems to have the Muses at his will to feed and maintaine his pen,' he uses of deliberation ' more common and familiar words'—the phrase proves the essential recognition of his own style—' fearing lest the book should appear very obscure and darke, and thereby consequently loathsome to the reader." Indeed, he elected to translate the one book of the world which demanded the free employment of strange terms, and set himself incontinent

title: Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/22


text:
Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/23

 to avoid slang and to simplify redundancies. And his restraint is the more unexpected when you recall the habit of contemporary translators. Barnaby Rich studded Herodotus thick with colloquialisms and fresh-minted words. Philemon Holland made no attempt to chasten his vocabulary. But Adlington, his opportunity being the higher, fell the more marvellously below it. For the most part, then, you will ransack his version in vain for obsolete words or exotic flowers of speech. And yet not even his love of simplicity has kept his vocabulary entirely pure. Again and again a coined phrase, a strange form shows, like a dash of colour, upon his page. 'The roperipe boy'—thus he renders puer ille peremptor meus by a happy inspiration, which Apuleius himself might envy. Fresh and unhackneyed is 'the gleed of the sun" for jubaris orbe. How exquisitely does 'a swathell of red silke' represent russea fasceola! 'Traffe or baggage' is more pleasantly picturesque than sarcinam vel laciniam, and one's heart rejoices to hear a churl styled 'a rich chuffe.' Again, 'ungles' is far more expressive, if less common, than 'claws'; and who would write 'niggardly' when 'niggish' is ready to his hand? And is not 'a carraine stinke' a high-sounding version of fetore nimio? To encounter so sturdy and wholesome a phrase as 'I smelling his crafty and subtil fetch'—though it be a poor echo of ego perspiciens malum istum verberonem blaterantem et inconcinne causificantem—is to regret the impoverishment of our English tongue. But not often are we rejoiced by the unexpected, and for the most part Adlington is a scrupulous critic of his diction. As he makes no attempt to represent in English his author's vocabulary, so is he wont to shirk the imagery,

title: Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/23


text:
Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/24

 and curtail the redundancy affected by Apuleius, repressing the hyperbolical ostentations of his original, save only when he indulges in exaggerations of his own. When the miserable Thelyphron is protecting a dead man from the witch women, thus does Apuleius, with his admirable sense of words, enhance the horror of crawling minutes: cum ecce crepusculum et nox provecta et nox altior et dein concubia altiora; et jam nox intempesta for which Adlington writes in all brevity 'midnight.' Apuleius again has a dozen fantastical notions of the dawn, and Adlington cuts them all down to the colourless level of 'when morning was come.' Thus even does he reduce so garishly purple a piece of imagery as: Commodum punicantibus phaleris Aurora roseum quatiens lacertum cælum inequitabat. When the thieves return to their den after the sack of Milo's house, and sit them down to revelry, Apuleius surpasses even his own habit of opulent description. Estur ac potatur—thus he writes—incondite pulmentis acervatim, panibus aggeratim, poculis agminatim ingestis. 'Cups in battalions!' 'Tis a pretty conceit, and for Adlington it means no more than 'they drank and eat exceedingly.' But having accustomed you to a chaste severity of language, he will break out suddenly into a decorative passage, for which the Latin gives no warrant. 'Moreover there be divers that will cast off their partlets, collars, habiliments, fronts, cornets, and krippins': thus he turns a perfectly simple sentence—lacinias omnes exuunt, amicula dimovent—proving his quietude of phrase the effect of design rather than of necessity. So also he is wont to clip and crop his author's metaphors. 'While I considered these things' is a withered, nerveless

title: Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/24


text:
Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/25

 rendering of cum isto cogitationis solo fluctuarem; yet is it entirely characteristic of his method. Indeed, from beginning to end he treats his author with the freest hand, and never permits the form and colour of the Latin to interrupt his conception of English prose.

But if he sacrificed something by too scrupulous a restraint, he sacrificed still more by his scanty knowledge of Latin. Scholarship was as little fashionable in Tudor England as pedantry, the defect corresponding to its quality; and Adlington laid no claim to profound erudition. He did but purpose 'according to his slender knowledge (though it were rudely, and farre disagreeing from the fine and excellent doings now-adayes),' to translate 'the delectable jeasts of Lucius Apuleius into our vulgar tongue.' Nor is the confession of 'slender knowledge' a mere parade of modesty: it is wholly justified by the event. To compile a list of errors were superfluous. In truth there is no page without its blunder, though, as we shall presently see, the translator commonly manages to tumble not only into sense but into distinction. Now and again the mistakes are so serious as to pervert the meaning, and then one regrets that Adlington was not more wisely guided. For instance, the servants of Philebus, the priest of the Syrian Goddess, are called puellæ by Apuleius in contempt of their miserable profession, and the translator impenetrably obscures the episode by rendering the word 'daughters' without a hint of explanation. Still, all are not so grave, though you are constantly driven to wonder at the ingenuity of error. When Byrrhena, in her panegyric of Hypata, tells Lucius that there the merchant may encounter the bustle of

title: Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/25


text:
Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/26

 Rome, the quiet visitor enjoy the peace of a country-house, Adlington thus heroically misses the mark: 'When the Roman merchants arrive in this city they are gently and quietly entertained, and all that dwell within this province (when they purpose to solace and repose themselves) do come to this city!' Verily there is magnificence (of a kind) in such confusion; and how shall one reproach a translator, upon whom accuracy sets so light a burden? Again, with a sublime recklessness Adlington perverts extorta dentibus ferarum trunca calvaria into 'the jaw-bones and teeth of wilde beasts,' not pausing to consider the mere formality of grammatical concord. And when Fotis relates how Pamphile, having failed to advance her suit by other arts (quod nihil etiam tune in suos amores ceteris artibus promoveret), designs to assume the shape and feathers of a bird, Adlington so carelessly confounds cause and effect as to say that the transformation was intended 'to worke her sorceries on such as she loved.' Tune solus ignoras longe faciliores ad expugnandum domus esse majores? asks one of the robbers; and Adlington, with the twisted cleverness of a fourth form boy, extorts therefrom this platitude: 'Why are you only ignorant that the greater the number is, the sooner they may rob and spoil the house?' When one of Psyche's wicked sisters threatens to go hang herself if Psyche prove the mother of a god (si divini puelli—quod absit—hæc mater audierit, statim me laqueo nexili suspendam), 'if it be a divine babe,' says the sister in the translation, 'and fortune to come to the ears of the mother (as God forbid it should) then may I go and hang my selfe': thus ignorant was our Englishman of the commonest idiom. Once, at the marriage

title: Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/26


text:
Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/27

 of Charite—good fortune seemed to wait upon the Ass, and his mistress promised him hay enough for a Bactrian camel (fænum camelo Bactrinæ sufficiens): a promise misinterpreted by a masterpiece of grotesquerie into 'she would call me her little camell.' With his very easy baggage of Latin, the translator lost the point of every Sprichwort, and turned the literary allusion into nonsense. In the phrase non cervam pro virgine sed hominem pro homine, the reference to Iphigenia is patent, and yet our excellent Adlington gets no nearer the truth than 'not a servant for his maidens, but rather an Asse for himselfe.'

So much must be said in dispraise of what after all is a masterpiece of prose. The translator, said Dr. Johnson, 'is to exhibit his author's thoughts in such a dress as the author would have given them had his language been English. Now, Adlington has failed, with the rest of the world, to reach this high standard. Under no conceivable circumstances could Apuleius have written in his terms and with his significance. For the perfect translation a knowledge of two languages is necessary. The modern translator is commonly endowed with a complete apprehension of Latin or Greek, and is withal lamentably ignorant of English. Adlington, on the other hand, was sadly to seek in Latin, but he more than atoned for his slender knowledge by an admirable treatment of his own language. Though he abandoned the colour and variety of Apuleius, he turned his author into as handsome a piece of prose as you are like to meet. From the first page to the last you will not find a trace of foreign idiom. The result is not so much a fine translation as a noble original, fitted to endure by

title: Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/27


text:
Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/28

 its vigorous diction and excellent rhythm. The manner js perfectly adapted to narration, and there are few can handle a story with better delicacy and point. 'The style, if simple for its age, has all the distinction of simplicity. The cadences are a perpetual pleasure to the ear. There is a stateliness, a dignity of effect, which proves that the prose of the Authorised Version was no invention, but a growth. Though Adlington does not pretend to echo the locutions of Apuleius, he is, after his own method, a master of phrase. Girded with her beautiful skarfe of love'—is it not an exquisite idea? How more nearly or more adroitly would you turn tamen nisi capillum distinzerit than in these terms if her hair be not curiously set forth'? If only the modern translator dared to represent ementita lassitudo by 'feigned and coloured weariness,' there were hope that his craft might rise above journey-work. Who would complain that the original was embroidered when it is to such admirable purpose as: 'Thus she cried and lamented, and after she had wearied herself with sorrow and blubbered her face with teares, she closed the windows of her hollow eyes, and laid her down to sleep. Here is prose, ever vivid and alert, ever absolved from the suspicion of the stereotyped phrase. In Adlington's day 'good taste' had not banned freshness and eccentricity from the language. A century later it had been impossible to translate glebosa camporum into ' cloggy, fallowed fields'; yet this is Adlington's expression, and it may be matched or bettered on every His Sustained page. Above all, his work is distinguished by that nobility of rhythm which makes the Tudor prose the best of good reading. 'And while I considered these things, I

title: Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/28


text:
Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/29

 looked about, and behold I saw a farre off a shadowed valley adjoyning nigh unto a wood, where amongst divers other hearbes and pleasant verdures, me thought I saw divers flourishing Roses of bright damaske colour; and said within my beastiall mind, Verily that place is the place of Venus and the Graces, where secretly glistereth the royall hew, of so lively and delectable a floure': here are no exotic words, no long-sought images; the rare effect is attained by a harmony, which not even the sternest simplicity can impoverish. Or take a passage in another key: 'In the meane season while I was fed with dainty morsels, I gathered together my flesh, my skin waxed soft, my haire began to shine, and was gallant on every part, but such faire and comely shape of my body, was cause of my dishonour, for the Baker and Cooke marvelled to see me so slick and fine, considering I did eat no hay at all. True, the word 'slick' (aptly suggested by nifore) is, so to say, a high light; but the beauty still depends upon the rhythm, to which Adlington's ear is ever attuned. In brief, whatever defects of scholarship and restraint mar the translation, it remains a model of that large, untrammelled prose which, before the triumph of common-sense, seemed within the reach of all. But is it not the strangest paradox of literary history that they who lived in the golden age of translation sought their original at second hand, or fumbled for their meaning in the dark?

One advantage at least was enjoyed by Adlington. He studied Apuleius in the native Latin, using, we may believe, the famous folio of 1500 (cum Beroaldt commentariis), prefaced by that Vita Lucit Apuleii summatim relata, which he paraphrased in English with his accustomed inaccuracy.

title: Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/29


text:
Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/30

 Howbeit, he did not 'so exactly pass through the author, as to point every sentence according as it is in Latine': for so, he adds, 'the French and Spanish translators have not done. Nor is there any doubt that he attempted to amend his ignorance of Latin by the aid of a French version. It is some proof of the early popularity of The Golden Ass that Spain, Italy, and France had each its translation into the vulgar tongue, before Adlington undertook the work. In 1522 there appeared a tiny quarto bearing this legend upon its title-page: 'Lucius Apuleius de Lasne dore ... On les vend a Paris en la grand rue St. Jacques, Par Philippe le noir. It was by one Guillaume Michel; and though before the English translation was a-making there had appeared another version by Georges de la Bouthiere (Lyons, 1553), adorned with cuts in the manner of Bernard Salmon, the earlier book was a guide, and too often a blind guide, unto Adlington's footsteps. 'The Frenchman, indeed, was the riper scholar, but not only did he indulge the tiresome habit of commenting by the way, and without warning, upon his text, but he was also guilty of the most ingenious blunders, which Adlington, as though his own errors were not sufficient, too readily followed. A comparison of the versions sets the matter beyond uncertainty. If again and again the same inaccuracy glares in English and French, it is obvious that the one was borrowed from the other. At the very outset there is a clear clue. Guillaume Michel, according to his habit of expansion, paraphrases hac me suadente in half a dozen lines; and Adlington, turning his invigilant eye from the Latin, is

title: Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/30


text:
Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/31

 guilty of the like unwarranted prolixity. Moreover, when Apuleius by a quip says of Meroe, sic reapse nomen ejus tunc Jabulis Socratis convenire sentiebam, you are puzzled by the ingenuity of Adlington's rendering : 'being so named because she was a Taverner, until you turn to the French and find in taverniére the source of error. Again, Diophanes, the magician in Milo's story, is consulted by a certain merchant, Cerdo by name. (The Latin is unmistakable: Cerdo quidam nomine negotiator.) Now, Adlington boldly translates 'a certaine Cobler,' and instantly the Frenchman's quelque savatier explains the blunder. Toutfoys mon cheval et lautre beste lasne de Milo ne me voulurent souffrir avec eulx paistre: so Michel at the beginning of the Fourth Book. And thus Adlington: ' but myne own horse and Miloes Asse would not suffer me to feed there with them, but I must seeke my dinner in some other place.' 'The renderings agree precisely in a gross inaccuracy, and the Latin—nec me cum asino vel equo meo compascuus coetus attinere potuit adhuc insolitum alioquin prandere fanum—is involved enough to explain Adlington's reliance upon the French. Another passage is even more convincing. Ad quandam villam possessoris beati perveniunt, writes Apuleius, whom Adlington translates: 'we fortuned to come to one Britunis house'*; nor would it appear who this Britunis might be, unless you turned to Michel's French and read, en aucun village chiez ung riche laboureur nomme Brulinus. 'This strange correspondence in error might be enforced by countless examples. But by this it is evident that, although Adlington did not, like Angell Day, Sir Thomas North, George Nichols

title: Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/31


text:
Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/32

 (translator of Thucydides), render his author from the French openly and without shame, he consulted the French as well as the Latin, and fared rather the worse therefor.

If for a judgment of Adlington the writer there is ample material, of Adlington the man we know nothing more than he vouchsafes himself. That six editions appeared in some seventy years is proof of the book's popularity. But its only mention is in the Register of the Stationers' Company, where it figures 'In the enterynge of Coopyes"' between the 22nd July 1565 and the 22nd July 1566—something earlier than the date of the dedication. ' Wekes. Recevyd of henry wekes," thus it runs, 'for his lycense for pryntinge of a boke intituled the hole boke of lucious apelious of ye golden asse, viijd." The epistle dedicatory to Thomas, Earle of Sussex, is dated 'from University College in Oxenford, the xviii. of September, 1566. But whether or no he was a graduate of that seat of learning is still uncertain. His name does not appear in the Register of the University, and in vain you consult the common sources of information. He presents his book to his patron in the customary terms of extravagant eulogy: 'The which if your honourable Lordship shall accept, writes he of his Apuleius, 'and take in good part, I shall not only thinke my small travell and labour well employed, but shall also receive a further comfort to attempt some more serious matter.' If the serious matter were ever attempted, its very gravity has sunk it out of know-

title: Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/32


text:
Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/33

 ledge : unless, indeed, he be the author of that very rare and exceeding obvious tract in verse, entitled, A Speciall Remedie against the force of lawlesse Love. This was published in 1579, and ascribed upon the title-page to W. A. As the agreement of name and date is perfect, so also the tone of the preface corresponds precisely with Adling- ton's admonition to the reader of The Golden Asse. When the ' friendly Reader ' of the Speciall Remedie is warned how ' like unto a beast love transformeth a man, during the which ' nothing can be exercised in minde, nothing by reason or 4 study of minde can be done," 1 you are forthwith reminded of Adlington and of Lucius changed to an ass. The verses His Morality are properly forgotten, but by his own confession we know him subject to an invincible morality which, ill according with his century, drove him perchance to undertake this enter- prise gloomy enough for oblivion. Lector intende : Icetaberis such is the bidding of Apuleius. And Adlington apolo- gises that ' although the matter seeme very light and merry, ' yet the effect thereof tendeth to a good and vertuous moral," 12 just as the author of the Speciall Remedie remarks with Plinie, ' there is no book so simple, but that therein is some- ' what worthy the noating." 1 As though the Milesian Tale were judged, not by its pleasantry and delight, but by the quality of its moral sustenance ! But Adlington was of

title: Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/33


text:
Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/34

 those who would allegorise both mythology and romance. 'The fall of Icarus is an example to proud and arrogant persons, that weeneth to climbe up to the heavens'; and further, he holds that 'by Mydas is carped the foul sin of Avarice.' And, as if to excuse the translation of a 'meere jeast and fable,' he addresses to the reader a most solemn homily, setting forth the example of Nebuchadnezzar and upholding the efficacy of prayer. 'Verily under the wrap of this transformation is taxed the life of mortall men,' thus he writes in the proper spirit of the divine; concluding that we can never bee restored to the right figure of our selves, except we taste and eat the sweet Rose of reason and vertue, which the rather by mediation of praier we may assuredly attaine.' Nor is this the mere perversion of ingenuity. His prudery is perfectly sincere. In many places he is inclined, by a modest suppression, to mitigate the gaiety of the Apuleian narrative. But only once does he completely sacrifice his author's effect to his own scruples; and the restrained nobility of his prose more than atones for lack of scholarship and a prudish habit of mind. The lapse of three centuries has left his book as fresh and living as its original, and withal as brave a piece of narrative as the literature of his century has to show.

CHARLES WHIBLEY.

title: Page:The Golden Ass of Apuleius.djvu/34


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 9

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 9


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 10

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 10


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 11

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 11


text:
Page:R L Stevenson 1917 Familiar studies of men and books.djvu/121

 when Mr. Spencer found his Synthetic Philosophy reverberated from the other shores of the Atlantic in the "barbaric yawp" of Whitman?

Whitman, it cannot be too soon explained, writes up to a system. He was a theoriser about society before he was a poet. He first perceived something wanting, and then sat down squarely to supply the want. The reader, running over his works, will find that he takes nearly as much pleasure in critically expounding his theory of poetry as in making poems. This is as far as it can be from the case of the spontaneous village minstrel dear to elegy, who has no theory whatever, although sometimes he may have fully as much poetry as Whitman. The whole of Whitman's work is deliberate and preconceived. A man born into a society comparatively new, full of conflicting elements and interests, could not fail, if he had any thoughts at all, to reflect upon the tendencies around him. He saw much good and evil on all sides, not yet settled down into some more or less unjust compromise as in older nations, but still in the act of settlement. And he could not but wonder what it would turn out; whether the compromise would be very just or very much


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 12

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 12


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 13

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 13


text:
Page:The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy (Volume 7).pdf/83

 of Bourbon did not mend that leg—she might as well be lame of both—''&c. &c. &c.—He so contrived his story as absolutely to forget the heroine of it—and with her, the little novice, and what was a more ticklish point to be forgot than both—the two mules; who being creatures that take advantage of the world, inasmuch as their parents took it of them—and they not being in a condition to return the obligation downwards'' (as men and women and beasts are)—they do it side-ways, and long-ways, and back-ways—and up hill, and down hill, and which way they can.—Philosophers, with all their ethics, have never considered this rightly—how should the poor muleteer then, in his cups, consider it at all? he did not in the least—'tis time we do; let us leave him then in the vor-


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 14

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 14


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 15

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 15


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 16

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 16


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 17

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 17


text:
Page:The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy (Volume 7).pdf/84

 tex of his element, the happiest and most thoughtless of mortal men—and for a moment let us look after the mules, the abbess, and Margarita.

By virtue of the muleteer's two last strokes, the mules had gone quietly on, following their own consciences up the hill, till they had conquer'd about one half of it; when the elder of them, a shrewd crafty old devil, at the turn of an angle, giving a side glance, and no muleteer behind them

By my fig! said she, swearing, I'll go no further—And if I do, replied the other—they shall make a drum of my hide.

And so with one consent they stopp'd thus


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 18

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 18


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 19

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 19


text: The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman/Volume 7/Chapter 21


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 20

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 20


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 21

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 21


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 22

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 22


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 23

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 23


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 24

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 24


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 25

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 25


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 26

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 26


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 27

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 27


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 28

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 28


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 29

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 29


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 30

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 30


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 31

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 31


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 32

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 32


text: Page:Collecting and Preserving Insects and Mites - Techniques and Tools.pdf/1


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 33

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 33


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 34

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 34


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 35

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 35


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 36

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 36


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 37

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 37


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 38

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 38


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 39

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 39


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 40

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 40


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 41

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 41


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 42

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 42


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 43

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 43


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 44

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 44


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 45

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 45


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 46

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 46


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 47

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 47


text: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 48

title: The Golden Ass of Apuleius/Chapter 48


text:
Page:Clotel (1853).djvu/83

 conquered every difficulty. The slaves now made a straight course for the Baton Rouge and Bayou Sara road, about four miles distant.

Feeling hungry now, after their morning walk, and perhaps thirsty, too, they went about half a mile off the road, and ate a good, hearty, substantial breakfast. Negroes must eat, as well as other people, but the dogs will tell on them. Here, for a moment, the dogs are at fault, but soon unravel the mystery, and bring them back to the road again; and now what before was wonderful, becomes almost a miracle. Here, in this common highway—the thoroughfare for the whole country around-through mud and through mire, meeting waggons and teams, and different solitary wayfarers, and, what above all is most astonishing, actually running through a gang of negroes, their favourite game, who were working on the road, they pursue the track of the two negroes; they even ran for eight miles to the very edge of the plain—the slaves near them for the last mile. At first they would fain believe it some hunter chasing deer. Nearer and nearer the whimpering pack presses on; the delusion begins to dispel; all at once the truth flashes upon them like a glare of light; their hair stands on end; 'tis Tabor with his dogs. The scent becomes warmer and warmer. What was an irregular cry, now deepens into one ceaseless roar, as the relentless pack rolls on after its human prey. It puts one in mind of Acton and his dogs. They grow desperate and leave the road, in the vain hope of shaking them off. Vain hope, indeed! The momentary cessation only adds new zest to the chase; The cry grows louder and louder; the yelp grows short and quick, sure indication that the game is at hand. It is a perfect rush upon the part of the hunters, while the negroes call upon their weary and jaded limbs to do their best, but they falter and

title: Page:Clotel (1853).djvu/83


text:
Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/387

] the trunks of these beautiful trees destroyed and sacrificed to such a momentary gratification.

Peacocks were very common in these forests through which we rambled in every direction, and we shot several of them. Amongst other plants, I collected several beautiful species of uvaria, helecteres and bauhinia.

The natives were employed in clearing a fine piece of ground at the foot of the eastern mountains. The smaller trees they cut down with axes; the larger they only stripped of their bark near the root, in order to make them decay.

In the afternoon a distant sound of thunder ushered in a violent fall of rain, as is usual at this season, which compelled us to hasten back to our habitation. The Tomagon, before he returned to Banguil, repeated the orders he had already given to the natives, to provide for our safety and our wants.

On the following days we visited the mountains of Panangounan, penetrating into the territory of the Emperor of Solo through vast forests of tek-trees, under the shade of which the pancratium amboinense grew in abundance. Our guides often expressed their fear of meeting with tigers, which, they told us, were very common in the thickets on the banks of the rivers, where they lie in wait for the animals that come to


text:
Page:Clotel (1853).djvu/84

 beneath them. The breath of the hounds is almost upon their very heels, and yet they have a vain hope of escaping these sagacious animals. They can run no longer; the dogs are upon them; they hastily attempt to climb a tree, and as the last one is nearly out of reach, the catch-dog seizes him by the leg, and brings him to the ground; he sings out lustily and the dogs are called off. After this man was secured, the one in the tree was ordered to come down; this, however, he refused to do, but a gun being pointed at him, soon caused him to change his mind. On reaching the ground, the fugitive made one more bound, and the chase again commenced. But it was of no use to run and he soon yielded. While being tied, he committed an unpardonable offence: he resisted, and for that he must be made an example on their arrival home. A mob was collected together, and a Lynch court was held, to determine what was best to be done with the negro who had had the impudence to raise his hand against a white man. The Lynch court decided that the negro should be burnt at the stake. A Natchez newspaper, the Free Trader, giving an account of it says,

"The body was taken and chained to a tree immediately on the banks of the Mississippi, on what is called Union Point. Faggots were then collected and piled around him, to which he appeared quite indifferent. When the work was completed, he was asked what he had to say. He then warned all to take example by him, and asked the prayers of all around; he then called for a drink of water, which was handed to him; he drank it, and said, 'Now set fire—I am ready to go in peace!' The torches were lighted, and placed in the pile, which soon ignited. He watched unmoved the curling flame that grew, until it began to entwine itself around and feed upon his body; then he sent forth cries of

title: Page:Clotel (1853).djvu/84


text:
Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/388

326 drink. We, however, met with none of these beasts of prey.

The Javanese who accompanied us were almost continually on horseback, and did not dismount even in the most inaccessible parts of the forest; but whenever they saw the plant, called in their language kadiarankri, they immediately threw themselves on their feet, and ran as fast as they were able to gather it, trying to outstrip each other. Their eagerness raising our curiosity to know the cause of their valuing this plant so highly, we were informed that the knobs of its roots, dried and reduced to powder, were a powerful aphrodisiac. It appears that these auxiliary medicines are much esteemed amongst this people, as, indeed, they generally are amongst the inhabitants of hot climates. This parasite plant is only to be found upon the trunks of large trees. It was not yet at its period of fructification; however, it appeared to me to be a new species of the pothos.

During these excursions I killed several wild cocks, whose plumage was diversified with a variety of colours of admirable brilliancy. Their crowing, which we often heard in the midst of the woods, led us at first to imagine that we were in the vicinity of some habitation, but we soon learnt to distinguish their note perfectly well


text:
Page:On the Influence of Carbonic Acid in the Air upon the Temperature of the Ground.pdf/23

258 temperature which is caused by the variation of $$\beta$$ to the following values to be

These values are calculated for $\nu=1$, i. e. for the solid crust of the earth's surface, except the snowfields. For surfaces with another value of $\nu$, as for instance the ocean or the snowfields, we have to multiply this value $$t$$ by a fraction given above.

We have now shortly to consider the influence of the clouds. A great part of the earth's surface receives no heat directly from the sun, because the sun's rays are stopped by clouds. How great a part of the earth's surface is covered by clouds we may find from Teisserenc de Bort's work on Nebulosity. From tab. 17 of this publication I have determined the mean nebulosity for different latitudes, and found: –

For the part of the earth between 60° S. and 60° N. we find the mean value 0.525, i. e. 52.5 per cent. of the sky is clouded, The heat-effect of these clouds may be estimated in the following manner. Suppose a cloud lies over a part of the earth's surface and that no connexion exists between this shadowed part and the neighbouring parts, then a thermal equilibrium will exist between the temperature of the cloud and of the underlying ground. They will radiate to each other and the cloud also to the upper air and to space, and the radiation between cloud and earth may, on account of the slight difference of temperature, be taken as proportional to this difference. Other exchanges of heat by means of air-currents are also, as a first approximation, proportional to this difference. If we therefore suppose the temperature of the cloud to alter (other circumstances, as its height and composition, remaining unchanged), the temperature of the ground under it must also alter in the same manner if the same supply of heat to both subsists – if there were no supply to the ground from neighbouring parts, the cloud and the ground would finally assume the same mean temperature. If, therefore, the temperature of the clouds varies in a determined manner


text:
Page:Clotel (1853).djvu/85

 agony painful to the ear, begging some one to blow his brains out; at the same time surging with almost superhuman strength, until the staple with which the chain was fastened to the tree (not being well secured) drew out, and he leaped from the burning pile. At that moment the sharp ringing of several rifles was heard: the body of the negro fell a corpse on the ground. He was picked up by some two or three, and again thrown into the fire, and consumed, not a vestige remaining to show that such a being ever existed."

Nearly 4,000 slaves were collected from the plantations in the neighbourhood to witness this scene. Numerous speeches were made by the magistrates and ministers of religion to the large concourse of slaves, warning them, and telling them that the same fate awaited them, if they should prove rebellious to their owners. There are hundreds of negroes who run away and live in the woods. Some take refuge in the swamps, because they are less frequented by human beings. A Natchez newspaper gave the following account of the hiding-place of a slave who had been captured:—

"A runaway's den was discovered on Sunday, near the Washington Spring, in a little patch of woods, where it had been for several months so artfully concealed under ground, that it was detected only by accident, though in sight of two or three houses, and near the road and fields where there has been constant daily passing. The entrance was concealed by a pile of pine straw, representing a hog-bed, which being removed, discovered a trap-door and steps that led to a room about six feet square, comfortably ceiled with plank, containing a small fire-place, the flue of which was ingeniously conducted above ground and concealed by the straw. The inmates took the alarm, and made their escape; but Mr. Adam and his excellent dogs being put upon the trail, soon run down and secured one of them, which proved to be a negro-fellow who had been out about a year. He stated that the other occupant was a woman, who had been a runaway

title: Page:Clotel (1853).djvu/85


text:
Page:Hardwicke's Science-Gossip - Volume 1.pdf/28

12 The house-fly is not the only insect which is subject to the attacks of this mould, the commong dung-fly being equally liable to it. The mould which attacks the silkworm (Botrytis bassiana), producing the well-known disease, muscardine, has been the subject of earnest investigation by those cultivators who to their cost have suffered the visitation. The fly-mould, however, belongs to a simpler and lower organization than the Botrytis, and bears the name of Sporendonema muscæ. The first of these is the generic, or name of the genus, to which the fly-mould belongs, and is derived from a combination of three Greek words: sporos, "seed," endon, "within," and nema, a "thread." The structure of the moulds themselves suggested this compound name, as the genus is characterized by pellucid tubular threads, containing at first within them the sporidia arranged in rows. This particular species is called muscæ, from musca, "a fly." The threads are simple, glued together into somewhat lobed white tufts, which assume a shape that we have already described as resembling a cart-wheel. Some observers have considered this fly-mould to be the accompaniment of a disease, and only developed after death; but more recent investigators have undoubtedly established the fact that the mould is the true predisposing cause of death. Two other names have been given to this mould by more recent authors, consequent on referring it to other genera.

Such is a brief account of the troubles of a fly, which, having partaken of our choicest dainties uninvited, sipped our divine nectar, stolen our sugar, and escaped the perils of the milk jug, at last pays the penalty of nature, by exchanging the gambols of a merry life for the tetanic embraces of a mouldly death. W. M. B.

OUR years last September, as I was wandering through the meadows at Hastings, near the spot called "Lover's Seat," I captured a young frog and also a young toad, and brought them both, for the first time, on a visit to the Great Metropolis. These creatures I placed in a small conservatory, but poor Froggy soon died. Today, however, survived, and soon appeared to have become acclimatized. I occasionally saw him, but found that one of his propensities was to get out of sight. About November of the same year, I lost him altogether, and for some time grieved over the absense of my pet. Imagine my astonishment, one fine morning, in the latter part of March, whilst at breakfast, to observe my old friend creeping over some moss, greatly increased in size and ugliness during his four months' absense. He would afterwards occasionally absent himself for weeks, so that I ceased to be alarmed for his welfare, even though I might not have caught sight of him for a month. In this manner we went on, leaving Today to take his holidays as he pleased, until the spring of last year. During one of his temporary vacations, I was watching the movements of some small insects, and it appeared that my pet was watching them also, for on their approaching within reach of his tongue, that organ was instantaneously thrust forward, and an insect disappeared. Thus while losing sight of a new acquaintance I became aware of the presence of an old friend. I also derived fresh satisfaction in observing his choice of food, and mode of taking it. Thenceforward I became diligent in supplying him with the same kind of food, so that he soon lost all appearance of shyness, would come out of his hiding-place regularly, day by day, until late in November, 1863, when he again disappeared as the frost set in. At this time the weather was very severe for so early a period: the aquarium was frozen, the fish were killed, the glass was broken, and all its contents became a solid mass, plants, animals, and everything, embedded, as it were, in a large transparent crystal. Again, I was agreeably surprised, one beautiful spring day in the early part of April, to observe my old friend moving about, as if to inform us that he had returned again from his unknown place of retreat. He had again grown fatter and uglier than he was in the autumn, his skin was blacker and coarser, and dark spots covered the whole body. Yet his eye seemed more brilliant and thoughtful. He came direct to the same spot on which I had fed him when last we met, more tha four months previously. He was supplied with what we term "garden-hogs," woodlice, worms, and the lively little black ant. None of these would he touch, if dead, or did not show unmistakable signs of active life. Then would he fix his calculating eye, until the object came within reach of his tongue; this he would dart at them, and in an instant the object was gone. When satisfied, he would return again to some quiet nook, out of sight.


text:
Page:Clotel (1853).djvu/86

 a still longer time. In the den was found a quantity of meal, bacon, corn, potatoes, &c. and various cooking utensils and wearing apparel."-Vicksburgh Sentinel, Dec. 6th, 1838.

Currer was one of those who witnessed the execution of the slave at the stake, and it gave her no very exalted opinion of the people of the cotton growing district.

title: Page:Clotel (1853).djvu/86


text:
Page:Scott's Last Expedition, Volume 1.djvu/879

Rh such a surface as we have got. I fear there will not be much change for the next 3 or 4 days.

R. 33. Temp. −17°. We have struggled out 4·6 miles in a short day over a really terrible surface—it has been like pulling over desert sand, not the least glide in the world. If this goes on we shall have a bad time, but I sincerely trust it is only the result of this windless area close to the coast and that, as we are making steadily outwards, we shall shortly escape it. It is perhaps premature to be anxious about covering distance. In all other respects things are improving. We have our sleeping-bags spread on the sledge and they are drying, but, above all, we have our full measure of food again. To-night we had a sort of stew fry of pemmican and horseflesh, and voted it the best hoosh we had ever had on a sledge journey. The absence of poor Evans is a help to the commissariat, but if he had been here in a fit state we might have got along faster. I wonder what is in store for us, with some little alarm at the lateness of the season.

Monday, February 20.—R. 34. Lunch Temp. −13°; Supper Temp. −15°. Same terrible surface; four hours' hard plodding in morning brought us to our Desolation Camp, where we had the four-day blizzard. We looked for more pony meat, but found none. After lunch we took to ski with some improvement of comfort. Total mileage for day 7—the ski tracks pretty plain and easily followed this afternoon. We have left another cairn behind. Terribly slow progress, but we hope for better things as we clear the land. There is a tendency to cloud over in the S.E. to-night, which may turn to our advantage.


text:
Page:Clotel (1853).djvu/88

 her proscribed race was unrecognised by law, and therefore the ceremony would give her no legal hold on Horatio's constancy. But her high poetic nature regarded reality rather than the semblance of things; and when he playfully ashed how she could keep him if he wished to run away, she replied, "If the mutual love we have for each other, and the dictates of your own conscience do not cause you to remain my husband, and your affections fall from me, I would not, if I could, hold you by a single fetter." It was indeed a marriage sanctioned by heaven, although unrecognised on earth. There the young couple lived secluded from the world, and passed their time as happily as circumstances would permit. It was Clotel's wish that Horatio should purchase her mother and sister, but the young. man pleaded that he was unable, owing to the fact that he had not come into possession of his share of property, yet he promised that when he did, he would seek them out and purchase them. Their first-born was named Mary, and her complexion was still lighter than her mother. Indeed she was not darker than other white children. As the child grew older, it more and more resembled its mother. The iris of her large dark eye had the melting mezzotinto, which remains the last vestige of African ancestry, and gives that plaintive expression, so often observed, and so appropriate to that docile and injured race. Clotel was still happier after the birth of her dear child; for Horatio, as might have been expected, was often absent day and night with his friends in the city, and the edicts of society had built up a wall of separation between the quadroon and them. Happy as Clotel was in Horatio's love, and surrounded by an outward environment of beauty, so well adapted to her poetic spirit, she felt these incidents with inexpressible pain. For herself she

title: Page:Clotel (1853).djvu/88


text:
Page:Preliminary Lecture to the Course of Lectures on the Institutions of Justinian (Wilde, 1794, bim eighteenth-century preliminary-lecture-to-t wilde-john 1794).pdf/5

 of influence on the one ide of Scottih politics (then more than now) made up by any weight in the oppoite cale. If I had ever been counted (which is more than I know) I had ceaed to make any part of the calculation. Yet it o happened, that the exertions of peronal friendhip were as efficacious, and even as peedy, as if I had been whirled in the political gig: and it was undertood on all hands, that the election would take place, and be over, as to all parties, in the enuing ummer.

It fell out omewhat otherwie. In the month of June of the ame year, ome oppoition began to be made; and trong things were even aid that the appointment hould never happen. The nomination was, in the firt intance, with the faculty of advocates; ineed, as in effect, Rh


text:
Page:Preliminary Lecture to the Course of Lectures on the Institutions of Justinian (Wilde, 1794, bim eighteenth-century preliminary-lecture-to-t wilde-john 1794).pdf/25

 hopes of revival. They will only crackle in the French furnace; and be diipated, in a moment, and for ever, in the tench and vapour of their noiome revolutions. Hitherto, in the unhine, in the genial air, of our contitutional liberty, our commerce has been an ever-green. With a revolution of our ytem, there would be a revolution of our climate. It would be the dreadful ign, at once, and the fatal completion, of our remediles fall.

"Perih our commenrce; live our contitution." So poke Mr. Grattan in the Irih Houe of Commons, on the buines of the Irih propoitions, everal years ago. He was not accued of undervaluing the commerce of Ireland. Yet it is not this gentleman to whom I referred, as the great and original authority. This is Rh


text:
Page:Bierce - Collected Works - Volume 09.djvu/60

56 consideration the number of the gentleman's ancestors must have been twice as great, namely, 2,147,483,648 — more than two thousand millions, or some five hundred millions more than Earth is infested with even now. Where did all those people live? — in Mars? And to what political or other causes was due the migration to Earth, en masse, of their sons and daughters in the next generation?

Does the reader care to follow up Mr. Smith's long illustrious line any further — back to the wee, sma' years of the Christian era, for example? Well and good, but I warn him that geometrical progression, as he has already observed, "counts up." Long before his calculations have reached back to the first merry Christmas he will find Mr. Smith's ancestors — if they were really all terrestrial in their habits — piled many-deep over the entire surface of all the continents, islands and ice-floes of this distracted globe. A decent respect for the religious convictions of my countrymen forbids me even to hint at what the calculation would show if carried back to the time of Adam and Eve.

It will perhaps be observed that I have left out of consideration the circumstance that John Smith (my particular John) is not the


text:
Page:Naruto v. Slater.pdf/12

 justiciability: whether the plaintiff has made out a ‘case or controversy’ between himself and the defendant within the meaning of Art. III.”); Coalition, 310 F.3d at 1157 (“At its constitutional core, standing is a manifestation of the Article III case-or-controversy requirement; it is the determination of whether a specific person is the proper party to invoke the power of a federal court.” (emphasis added) ). “[T]he core component of standing is an essential and unchanging part of the case-or-controversy requirement of Article III.” Lujan, 504 U.S. at 560, 112 S.Ct. 2130. Accordingly, the Supreme Court has “deduced a set of requirements that together make up the ‘irreducible constitutional minimum of standing.’ ” Lexmark Int’l, Inc. v. Static Control Components, Inc., –572 [sic] U.S. —, 134 S.Ct. 1377, 1386, 188 L.Ed.2d 392 (2014) (quoting Lujan, 504 U.S. at 560, 112 S.Ct. 2130).

Part of the Article III case-or-controversy requirement is the obvious derivative premise that “the plaintiff generally must assert his own legal rights and interests.” Warth, 422 U.S. at 499, 95 S.Ct. 2197 (citing Tileston v. Ullman, 318 U.S. 44, 46, 63 S.Ct. 493, 87 L.Ed. 603 (1943); United States v. Raines, 362 U.S. 17, 21, 80 S.Ct. 519, 4 L.Ed.2d 524 (1960); Barrows v. Jackson, 346 U.S. 249, 255, 73 S.Ct. 1031, 97 L.Ed. 1586 (1958) ); see also Sessions v. Morales-Santana, ——582 [sic] U.S. ———, 137 S.Ct. 1678, 1689, 198 L.Ed.2d 150 (2017) (“Ordinarily, a party must assert his own legal rights and cannot rest his claim to relief on the legal rights of third parties.” (alterations, internal quotation marks, and citations omitted) ); Caplin & Drysdale, Chartered v. United States, 491 U.S. 617, 623 n.3, 109 S.Ct. 2646, 105 L.Ed.2d 528 (1989) (identifying that “whether the litigant suffered some injury-in-fact, adequate to satisfy Article III’s case-or-controversy requirement” is the first of two questions the Court asks “[w]hen a person or entity seeks standing to advance the constitutional rights of others”). “This Court, as is the case with all federal courts, ‘has no jurisdiction to pronounce any statute, either of a state or of the United States, void, because irreconcilable with the constitution, except as it is called upon to adjudge the legal rights of litigants in actual controversies.’ ” Raines, 362 U.S. at 21, 80 S.Ct. 519 (emphasis added).

With only a single, narrow exception, a person filing a claim must assert a personal injury in fact to establish standing. Lujan, 504 U.S. at 560–61, 112 S.Ct. 2130. This exception is next-friend standing, where a third-party—without alleging its own injury—is allowed to bring suit on behalf of the named-party, who is either (1) an incompetent or minor; or (2) unable to access the courts because of imprisonment. With next-friend standing, the party in interest has an Article III injury, but because of the disabling aspect (minority,

title: Page:Naruto v. Slater.pdf/12


text:
Page:Bury J B The Cambridge Medieval History Vol 2 1913.djvu/139

481-493] relations with Remi (Remigius), the bishop of this city. Then, gradually, meeting with more or less prolonged resistance, he gained possession of other cities, among them Paris — the defence of which was directed, so the legend runs, by Ste Geneviève — and Verdun-sur-Meuse, which is said to have received honourable terms, thanks to its bishop, Euspicius. Thus, little by little, the dominions of Clovis were extended to the banks of the Loire. In this newly conquered territory Clovis followed a new policy. In occupying Toxandria the Salians had expelled the Gallo-Roman population; here, on the contrary, they left the Gallo-Romans undisturbed and were content to mix with them. The ancient language held its ground, and the Gallo-Romans retained their possessions; there was not even a division of the lands, such as the Visigoths and Burgundians had made. Clovis was no doubt still a pagan, but he respected the Christian religion and shewed an extraordinary deference towards the bishops — that is the only conclusion that can be drawn from the well-known incident of the bowl of Soissons — and the prelates already seemed to see before them a glorious work to be accomplished in the conversion of Clovis to orthodox Christianity.

Not content with bringing the Gallo-Romans under his sway, Clovis waged war also with the barbarian peoples in the neighbourhood of his kingdom. In the year 491 he forced the Thuringians on the left bank of the Rhine to submit to him, and enrolled their warriors among his own troops. He also invited other barbarian auxiliaries to march under his standards — Procopius calls them — as well as the Roman soldiers who had been placed to guard the frontier, and in this way he formed a very strong army.

The fame of Clovis began to spread abroad. Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, who had almost completed the conquest of Italy, asked the hand of his sister Albofleda in marriage, and Clovis himself, in 493, espoused a Burgundian princess, Clotilda, daughter of Chilperic, who had died not long before, and niece of the kings Gundobad and Godigisel.

Clotilda was an orthodox Christian and set herself to convert her husband — it would be possible to trace the influence of women in many of those great conversions which have had important political consequences. Half won-over, the king of the Franks allowed his children to be baptised, but he hesitated to abjure for himself the faith of his ancestors. He did not make up his mind until after his first victory over the Alemans.

After his victory at Soissons, Clovis pushed his advance towards the east. The Alemans, already in possession of Alsace, were endeavouring to extend their territories towards the west, across the Vosges. It was inevitable that the two powers should come into collision. The struggle was severe. Clovis succeeded in crossing the Vosges, and, on the banks of the Rhine, probably in the neighbourhood of Strassburg, he defeated


text:
Page:Bury J B The Cambridge Medieval History Vol 2 1913.djvu/143

508] than by force. The Arian clergy were allowed to resume their rank in the hierarchy after a reconciliation by laying on of hands. Their churches were not destroyed, but after reconsecration were made over to the use of the orthodox.

On his way back from the war, Clovis in 508 visited the town of Tours, where he made large gifts to the monastery of St Martin. At Tours he received from the Emperor of the East, Anastasius, the patent of consular rank. He was not entitled consul, and his name would be sought in vain in the consular records; he was an honorary consul, tanquam consul, as Gregory of Tours quite accurately expresses it. He at once assumed the insignia of the consulship, with the purple tunic and mantle of the same colour, and, starting from the church of St Martin, he made a solemn entry into the town of Tours, and proceeded to the cathedral of St Gatien, scattering largess as he went. Clovis was evidently proud of this new honour, which was a proof of the Emperor's friendship — perhaps he had come to an agreement with the Emperor directed against Theodoric — but his investiture with the consulship gave him no new authority. His rights were those of conquest; they were not dependent on the sanction of the Emperor, and he continued to govern the Gallo-Romans after 508 as he had governed them before it. If he wore the Roman insignia at his entry into Tours, he continued to wear also the crown characteristic of barbarian kings, and along with the title of honorary consul — translated in a prologue to the Salic law by Proconsul — he assumed that of Augustus.

From Tours, Clovis proceeded to Paris where he now established the seat of his government. The town was admirably situated, lying on an island in the Seine, at a point about the middle of its course, and not far from the points at which it receives its two great confluents, the Marne and the Oise; well placed also for communication with the northern plain, and with the south of France by way of the Gap of Poitou. Already the town had overflowed to the left bank, and there Clovis built a basilica dedicated to the Holy Apostles. This was later the church of Ste Geneviève, close to what is now the Panthéon. In the neighbourhood of Paris there sprang up a number of royal villae, Clichy, Rueil, Nogent-sur-Marne, Bonneuil.

Clovis had won great victories; but there were still some Salian tribes which were ruled over by their own kings, and round about Cologne lay the kingdom of the Ripuarian Franks. By a series of assassinations Clovis got rid of the Salian kings, Chararic and Ragnachar, and the two brothers of the latter, Richar and Rignomer — the former killed near Mans — and took possession of their territories. The details which have come down to us of the assassination of these petty kings are legendary, but that they were murdered would appear to be the fact. There remained the kingdom of the Ripuarians.


text:
Page:Bury J B The Cambridge Medieval History Vol 2 1913.djvu/308

280 crown for himself but veiled his real plan under the pretext of championing the cause of Chosroes, Ormizd's eldest son. At the same time a plot was formed in the palace, and Bahram was forestalled: the conspirators dethroned the king and Chosroes was crowned at Ctesiphon. But after the assassination of Ormizd the new monarch was unable to maintain his position: his troops deserted to Bahram, and he was forced to throw himself upon the mercy of the Emperor. As a helpless fugitive the King of kings arrived at Circesium and craved Rome's protection, offering in return to restore the lost Armenian provinces and to surrender Martyropolis and Dara. Despite the counsels of the senate, Maurice saw in this strange reversal of fortune a chance to terminate a war which was draining the Empire's strength: his resolve to accede to his enemy's request was at once a courageous and a statesmanlike action. He furnished Chosroes with men and money, Narses took command of the troops, and John Mystakon marched from Armenia to join the army. The two forces met at Sargana (probably Sirgan, in the plain of Ushnei ) and in the neighbourhood of Ganzaca (Takhti-Soleïmán) defeated and put to flight Bahram, while Chosroes recovered his throne without further resistance. The new monarch kept his promises to Rome and surrounded himself with a Roman body-guard (591). By this interposition Maurice had restored the Empire's frontier and had ended the long-drawn struggle in the East.

In 592 therefore he could transport his army into Europe, and was able to employ his whole military force in the Danubian provinces. Maurice himself went with the troops as far as Anchialus, when he was recalled by the presence of a Persian embassy in the capital. The chronology of the next few years is confused and it is impossible to give here a detailed account of the campaigns. Their general object was to maintain the Danube as the frontier line against the Avars and to restrict the forays of the Slavs. In this Priscus met with considerable success, but Peter, Maurice's brother, who superseded him in 597, displayed hopeless incompetency and Priscus was reappointed. In 600 Comentiolus, who was, it would appear, in command against his own will, entered into communications with the Khagan in order to secure the discomfiture of the Roman forces: he was, in fact, anxious to prove that the attempt to defend the northern frontier was labour lost. He ultimately fled headlong to the capital and only the personal interference of the Emperor stifled the inquiry into his treachery. On this


text:
Page:Bury J B The Cambridge Medieval History Vol 2 1913.djvu/307

588-590] Maurice's only course was to reappoint Philippicus to the supreme command in the East, but the army, which had elected its own officers, was not to be thus easily pacified: the troops solemnly swore that they would never receive the nominee of an emperor whom they no longer acknowledged. Meanwhile, as was but natural, Persia seized her opportunity and invested Constantina, but Germanus prevailed upon his men to take action and the city was relieved. The soldiers' resentment was lessened by the skilful diplomacy of Aristobulus, who brought gifts from Constantinople, and Germanus was able to invade Persia with a force of 4000 men. Though checked by Marouzas, he retired in safety to the Nymphius, and at Martyropolis Marouzas was defeated and killed by the united Roman forces: three thousand captives were taken, among them many prominent Persians, while the spoils and standards were sent to Maurice. This was the signal that the army was once more prepared to acknowledge the Emperor, and all would have been well had not Maurice felt it necessary to insist that Philippicus should again be accepted by the troops as their general. This however they refused to do, even when Andreas, captain of the imperial shield-bearers, was sent to them; and only after a year's cessation of hostilities (588-589) was the army, through the personal influence of Gregory, bishop of Antioch, persuaded to obey its former commander (Easter 590). Philippicus did not long enjoy his triumph. About this time Martyropolis fell by treachery into Persian hands, and with the spring of 590 the Roman forces marched into Armenia to recover the city. When he failed in this Philippicus was superseded by Comentiolus, and although the latter was unsuccessful, Heraclius won a brilliant victory and captured the enemy's camp.

It is at first sight somewhat surprising that the Persians had remained inactive during the year 589, but we know that they were fully engaged with internal difficulties. The violence of Ormizd had, it seems, caused a dangerous revolt in Kusistan and Kerman, and in face of this peril Persia accepted an offer of help from the Turks. Once admitted into Khorasan, Schaweh Schah disregarded his promises and advanced southwards in the direction of the capital, but was met by Bahram Cobin, the governor of Media, and was defeated in the mountains of Ghilan. The power of the Turks was broken: they could no longer exact, but were bound to pay, an annual tribute. After this signal success Bahram Cobin undertook an invasion of Roman territory in the Caucasus district; the Persians encountered no resistance, for the imperial forces were concentrated in Armenia. Maurice sent Romanus to engage the enemy in Albania, and in the valley of one of the streams flowing into the Araxes Bahram was so severely worsted that he was in consequence removed from his command by Ormizd. Thus disgraced he determined to seize the


text: Page:Picture show (IA pictureshow00sassrich).pdf/61