III Early Modern English Period (1500-1800)
Introduction
This file contains a representative selection of authors, roughly from the time of
Shakespeare to the early nineteenth century, and includes an extract from the Authorised
Version of the Bible (the so-called King James Bible because it was commissioned by
King James I, 1603-1625). They have been chosen to illustrate the manner in which the
English language changed over this period (the last author has been included to show
how close English prose in the late 19th century is to the present-day language). Bear in
mind that because of the different genres represented here, the language may vary
significantly in style.
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11.
Edmund Spenser (c 1552-1599) ........................................................................... 1
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) ....................................................................... 6
Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) .................................................................... 13
The King James Version of the Bible ................................................................ 18
John Milton (1608-1674)..................................................................................... 21
John Bunyan (1628-1688) ................................................................................... 40
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)................................................................................ 44
Samuel Richardson (1689-1761) ........................................................................ 63
Laurence Sterne (1713-1768) ............................................................................. 66
Jane Austen (1775-1817)..................................................................................... 69
Bram Stoker (1847-1912) ................................................................................... 73
1.
Edmund Spenser (c 1552-1599)
The Faerie Queene (1590-1596)
First Booke
The First Booke of the Faerie Qveene contayning the Legende of the Knight of the Red
Crosse, or of Holinesse.
Lo I the man, whose Muse whilome did maske,
As time her taught in lowly Shepheards weeds,
Am now enforst a far vnfitter taske,
For trumpets sterne to chaunge mine Oaten reeds,
And sing of Knights and Ladies gentle deeds;
Whose prayses hauing slept in silence long,
Me, all too meane, the sacred Muse areeds
To blazon broad emongst her learned throng:
Fierce warres and faithfull loues shall moralize my song.
Helpe then, O holy Virgin chiefe of nine,
Thy weaker Nouice to performe thy will,
Lay forth out of thine euerlasting scryne
The antique rolles, which there lye hidden still,
Of Faerie knights and fairest Tanaquill,
Whom that most noble Briton Prince so long
Sought through the world, and suffered so much ill,
That I must rue his vndeserued wrong:
O helpe thou my weake wit, and sharpen my dull
And thou most dreaded impe of highest Ioue,
Faire Venus sonne, that with thy cruell dart
At that good knight so cunningly didst roue,
That glorious fire it kindled in his hart,
Lay now thy deadly Heben bow apart,
And with thy mother milde come to mine ayde:
Come both, and with you bring triumphant Mart,
In loues and gentle iollities arrayd,
After his murdrous spoiles and bloudy rage allayd.
And with them eke, O Goddesse heauenly bright,
Mirrour of grace and Maiestie diuine,
Great Lady of the greatest Isle, whose light
Like Phoebus lampe throughout the world doth shine,
Shed thy faire beames into my feeble eyne,
And raise my thoughts too humble and too vile,
To thinke of that true glorious type of thine,
The argument of mine afflicted stile:
The which to heare, vouchsafe, O dearest dred a-while.
Cant. I.
The Patron of true Holinesse,
Foule Errour doth defeate:
Hypocrisie him to entrape,
Doth to his home entreate.
A Gentle Knight was pricking on the plaine,
Y cladd in mightie armes and siluer shielde,
Wherein old dints of deepe wounds did remaine,
tong.
The cruell markes of many’ a bloudy fielde;
Yet armes till that time did he neuer wield:
His angry steede did chide his foming bitt,
As much disdayning to the curbe to yield:
Full iolly knight he seemd, and faire did sitt,
As one for knightly giusts and fierce encounters fitt.
But on his brest a bloudie Crosse he bore,
The deare remembrance of his dying Lord,
For whose sweete sake that glorious badge he wore,
And dead as liuing euer him ador’d:
Vpon his shield the like was also scor’d,
For soueraine hope, which in his helpe he had:
Right faithfull true he was in deede and word,
But of his cheere did seeme too solemne sad;
Yet nothing did he dread, but euer was ydrad.
Vpon a great aduenture he was bond,
That greatest Gloriana to him gaue,
That greatest Glorious Queene of Faerie lond,
To winne him worship, and her grace to haue,
Which of all earthly things he most did craue;
And euer as he rode, his hart did earne
To proue his puissance in battell braue
Vpon his foe, and his new force to learne;
Vpon his foe, a Dragon horrible and stearne.
A louely Ladie rode him faire beside,
Vpon a lowly Asse more white then snow,
Yet she much whiter, but the same did hide
Vnder a vele, that wimpled was full low,
And ouer all a blacke stole she did throw,
As one that inly mournd: so was she sad,
And heauie sat vpon her palfrey slow;
Seemed in heart some hidden care she had,
And by her in a line a milke white lambe she lad.
So pure an innocent, as that same lambe,
She was in life and euery vertuous lore,
And by descent from Royall lynage came
Of ancient Kings and Queenes, that had of yore
Their scepters stretcht from East to Westerne shore,
And all the world in their subiection held;
Till that infernall feend with foule vprore
Forwasted all their land, and them expeld:
Whom to auenge, she had this Knight from far compeld.
Behind her farre away a Dwarfe did lag,
That lasie seemd in being euer last,
Or wearied with bearing of her bag
Of needments at his backe. Thus as they past,
The day with cloudes was suddeine ouercast,
And angry Ioue an hideous storme of raine
Did poure into his Lemans lap so fast,
That euery wight to shrowd it did constrain,
And this faire couple eke to shroud themselues were fain.
Enforst to seeke some couert nigh at hand,
A shadie groue not far away they spide,
That promist ayde the tempest to withstand:
Whose loftie trees yclad with sommers pride,
Did spred so broad, that heauens light did hide,
Not perceable with power of any starre:
And all within were pathes and alleies wide,
With footing worne, and leading inward farre:
Faire harbour that them seemes; so in they entred arre.
And foorth they passe, with pleasure forward led,
Ioying to heare the birdes sweete harmony,
Which therein shrouded from the tempest dred,
Seemd in their song to scorne the cruell sky.
Much can they prayse the trees so straight and hy,
The sayling Pine, the Cedar proud and tall,
The vine-prop Elme, the Poplar neuer dry,
The builder Oake, sole king of forrests all,
The Aspine good for staues, the Cypresse funerall.
The Laurell, meed of mightie Conquerours
And Poets sage, the Firre that weepeth still,
The Willow worne of forlorne Paramours,
The Eugh obedient to the benders will,
The Birch for shaftes, the Sallow for the mill,
The Mirrhe sweete bleeding in the bitter wound,
The warlike Beech, the Ash for nothing ill,
The fruitfull Oliue, and the Platane round,
The caruer Holme, the Maple seeldom inward sound.
Led with delight, they thus beguile the way,
Vntill the blustring storme is ouerblowne;
When weening to returne, whence they did stray,
They cannot finde that path, which first was showne,
But wander too and fro in wayes vnknowne,
Furthest from end then, when they neerest weene,
That makes them doubt, their wits be not their owne:
So many pathes, so many turnings seene,
That which of them to take, in diuerse doubt they been.
At last resoluing forward still to fare,
Till that some end they finde or in or out,
That path they take, that beaten seemd most bare,
And like to lead the labyrinth about;
Which when by tract they hunted had throughout,
At length it brought them to a hollow caue,
Amid the thickest woods. The Champion stout
Eftsoones dismounted from his courser braue,
And to the Dwarfe a while his needlesse spere he gaue.
Be well aware, quoth then that Ladie milde,
Least suddaine mischiefe ye too rash prouoke:
The danger hid, the place vnknowne and wilde,
Breedes dreadfull doubts: Oft fire is without smoke,
And perill without show: therefore your stroke
Sir knight with-hold, till further triall made.
Ah Ladie (said he) shame were to reuoke
The forward footing for an hidden shade:
Vertue giues her selfe light, through darkenesse for to wade.
Yea but (quoth she) the perill of this place
I better wot then you, though now too late
To wish you backe returne with foule disgrace,
Yet wisedome warnes, whilest foot is in the gate,
To stay the steppe, ere forced to retrate.
This is the wandring wood, this Errours den,
A monster vile, whom God and man does hate:
Therefore I read beware. Fly fly (quoth then
The fearefull Dwarfe:) this is no place for liuing men.
But full of fire and greedy hardiment,
The youthfull knight could not for ought be staide,
But forth vnto the darksome hole he went,
And looked in: his glistring armor made
A litle glooming light, much like a shade,
By which he saw the vgly monster plaine,
Halfe like a serpent horribly displaide,
But th’other halfe did womans shape retaine,
Most lothsom, filthie, foule, and full of vile disdaine.
2.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Macbeth (c 1606)
SCENE: Scotland and England
ACT I. SCENE I.
A desert place. Thunder and lightning.
Enter three Witches.
FIRST WITCH. When shall we three meet again?
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
SECOND WITCH. When the hurlyburly’s done,
When the battle’s lost and won.
THIRD WITCH. That will be ere the set of sun.
FIRST WITCH. Where the place?
SECOND WITCH. Upon the heath.
THIRD WITCH. There to meet with Macbeth.
FIRST WITCH. I come, Graymalkin.
ALL. Paddock calls. Anon!
Fair is foul, and foul is fair.
Hover through the fog and filthy air.
Exeunt.
SCENE II.
A camp near Forres. Alarum within.
Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Lennox, with Attendants,
meeting a bleeding Sergeant.
DUNCAN. What bloody man is that? He can report,
As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt
The newest state.
MALCOLM. This is the sergeant
Who like a good and hardy soldier fought
‘Gainst my captivity. Hail, brave friend!
Say to the King the knowledge of the broil
As thou didst leave it.
SERGEANT. Doubtful it stood,
As two spent swimmers that do cling together
And choke their art. The merciless MacdonwaldWorthy to be a rebel, for to that
The multiplying villainies of nature
Do swarm upon him -from the Western Isles
Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied;
And Fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling,
Show’d like a rebel’s whore. But all’s too weak;
For brave Macbeth -well he deserves that nameDisdaining Fortune, with his brandish’d steel,
Which smoked with bloody execution,
Like Valor’s minion carved out his passage
Till he faced the slave,
Which ne’er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,
Till he unseam’d him from the nave to the chaps,
And fix’d his head upon our battlements.
DUNCAN. O valiant cousin! Worthy gentleman!
SERGEANT. As whence the sun ‘gins his reflection
Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break,
So from that spring whence comfort seem’d to come
Discomfort swells. Mark, King of Scotland, mark.
No sooner justice had, with valor arm’d,
Compell’d these skipping kerns to trust their heels,
But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage,
With furbish’d arms and new supplies of men,
Began a fresh assault.
DUNCAN. Dismay’d not this
Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo.?
SERGEANT. Yes,
As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion.
If I say sooth, I must report they were
As cannons overcharged with double cracks,
So they
Doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe.
Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds,
Or memorize another Golgotha,
I cannot tellBut I am faint; my gashes cry for help.
DUNCAN. So well thy words become thee as thy wounds;
They smack of honor both. Go get him surgeons.
Exit Sergeant, attended.
Who comes here?
Enter Ross.
MALCOLM The worthy Thane of Ross.
LENNOX. What a haste looks through his eyes! So should he look
That seems to speak things strange.
ROSS. God save the King!
DUNCAN. Whence camest thou, worthy Thane?
ROSS. From Fife, great King,
Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky
And fan our people cold.
Norway himself, with terrible numbers,
Assisted by that most disloyal traitor
The Thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict,
Till that Bellona’s bridegroom, lapp’d in proof,
Confronted him with self-comparisons,
Point against point rebellious, arm ‘gainst arm,
Curbing his lavish spirit; and, to conclude,
The victory fell on us.
DUNCAN. Great happiness!
ROSS. That now
Sweno, the Norways’ king, craves composition;
Nor would we deign him burial of his men
Till he disbursed, at Saint Colme’s Inch,
Ten thousand dollars to our general use.
DUNCAN. No more that Thane of Cawdor shall deceive
Our bosom interest. Go pronounce his present death,
And with his former title greet Macbeth.
ROSS. I’ll see it done.
DUNCAN. What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won.
Exeunt.
SCENE III.
A heath. Thunder.
Enter the three Witches.
FIRST WITCH. Where hast thou been, sister?
SECOND WITCH. Killing swine.
THIRD WITCH. Sister, where thou?
FIRST WITCH. A sailor’s wife had chestnuts in her lap,
And mounch’d, and mounch’d, and mounch’d. “Give me,” quoth I.
“Aroint thee, witch!” the rump-fed ronyon cries.
Her husband’s to Aleppo gone, master the Tiger;
But in a sieve I’ll thither sail,
And, like a rat without a tail,
I’ll do, I’ll do, and I’ll do.
SECOND WITCH. I’ll give thee a wind.
FIRST WITCH. Thou’rt kind.
THIRD WITCH. And I another.
FIRST WITCH. I myself have all the other,
And the very ports they blow,
All the quarters that they know
I’ the shipman’s card.
I will drain him dry as hay:
Sleep shall neither night nor day
Hang upon his penthouse lid;
He shall live a man forbid.
Weary se’nnights nine times nine
Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine;
Though his bark cannot be lost,
Yet it shall be tempest-toss’d.
Look what I have.
SECOND WITCH. Show me, show me.
FIRST WITCH. Here I have a pilot’s thumb,
Wreck’d as homeward he did come.
Drum within.
THIRD WITCH. A drum, a drum!
Macbeth doth come.
ALL. The weird sisters, hand in hand,
Posters of the sea and land,
Thus do go about, about,
Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine,
And thrice again, to make up nine.
Peace! The charm’s wound up.
Enter Macbeth and Banquo.
MACBETH. So foul and fair a day I have not seen.
BANQUO. How far is’t call’d to Forres? What are these
So wither’d and so wild in their attire,
That look not like the inhabitants o’ the earth,
And yet are on’t? Live you? or are you aught
That man may question? You seem to understand me,
By each at once her choppy finger laying
Upon her skinny lips. You should be women,
And yet your beards forbid me to interpret
That you are so.
MACBETH. Speak, if you can. What are you?
FIRST WITCH. All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!
SECOND WITCH. All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!
THIRD WITCH. All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be King hereafter!
BANQUO. Good sir, why do you start, and seem to fear
Things that do sound so fair? I’ the name of truth,
Are ye fantastical or that indeed
Which outwardly ye show? My noble partner
You greet with present grace and great prediction
Of noble having and of royal hope,
That he seems rapt withal. To me you speak not.
If you can look into the seeds of time,
And say which grain will grow and which will not,
Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear
Your favors nor your hate.
FIRST WITCH. Hail!
SECOND WITCH. Hail!
THIRD WITCH. Hail!
FIRST WITCH. Lesser than Macbeth, and greater.
SECOND WITCH. Not so happy, yet much happier.
THIRD WITCH. Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none.
So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!
FIRST WITCH. Banquo and Macbeth, all hail!
MACBETH. Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more.
By Sinel’s death I know I am Thane of Glamis;
But how of Cawdor? The Thane of Cawdor lives,
A prosperous gentleman; and to be King
Stands not within the prospect of belief,
No more than to be Cawdor. Say from whence
You owe this strange intelligence, or why
Upon this blasted heath you stop our way
With such prophetic greeting? Speak, I charge you.
Witches vanish.
BANQUO. The earth hath bubbles as the water has,
And these are of them. Whither are they vanish’d?
MACBETH. Into the air, and what seem’d corporal melted
As breath into the wind. Would they had stay’d!
BANQUO. Were such things here as we do speak about?
Or have we eaten on the insane root
That takes the reason prisoner?
MACBETH. Your children shall be kings.
BANQUO. You shall be King.
MACBETH. And Thane of Cawdor too. Went it not so?
BANQUO. To the selfsame tune and words. Who’s here?
Enter Ross and Angus.
ROSS. The King hath happily received, Macbeth,
The news of thy success; and when he reads
Thy personal venture in the rebels’ fight,
His wonders and his praises do contend
Which should be thine or his. Silenced with that,
In viewing o’er the rest o’ the selfsame day,
He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks,
Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make,
Strange images of death. As thick as hail
Came post with post, and every one did bear
Thy praises in his kingdom’s great defense,
And pour’d them down before him.
ANGUS. We are sent
To give thee, from our royal master, thanks;
Only to herald thee into his sight,
Not pay thee.
ROSS. And for an earnest of a greater honor,
He bade me, from him, call thee Thane of Cawdor.
In which addition, hail, most worthy Thane,
For it is thine.
BANQUO. What, can the devil speak true?
MACBETH. The Thane of Cawdor lives. Why do you dress me
In borrow’d robes?
ANGUS. Who was the Thane lives yet,
But under heavy judgement bears that life
Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was combined
With those of Norway, or did line the rebel
With hidden help and vantage, or that with both
He labor’d in his country’s wreck, I know not;
But treasons capital, confess’d and proved,
Have overthrown him.
MACBETH. [Aside.] Glamis, and Thane of Cawdor!
The greatest is behind. [To Ross and Angus] Thanks for your
pains.
[Aside to Banquo] Do you not hope your children shall be kings,
When those that gave the Thane of Cawdor to me
Promised no less to them?
BANQUO. [Aside to Macbeth.] That, trusted home,
Might yet enkindle you unto the crown,
Besides the Thane of Cawdor. But ‘tis strange;
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray’s
In deepest consequenceCousins, a word, I pray you.
MACBETH. [Aside.] Two truths are told,
As happy prologues to the swelling act
Of the imperial theme-I thank you, gentlemen.
[Aside.] This supernatural soliciting
Cannot be ill, cannot be good. If ill,
Why hath it given me earnest of success,
Commencing in a truth? I am Thane of Cawdor.
If good, why do I yield to that suggestion
Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs,
Against the use of nature? Present fears
Are less than horrible imaginings:
My thought, whose murther yet is but fantastical,
Shakes so my single state of man that function
Is smother’d in surmise, and nothing is
But what is not.
BANQUO. Look, how our partner’s rapt.
MACBETH. [Aside.] If chance will have me King, why, chance may
crown me
Without my stir.
BANQUO. New honors come upon him,
Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould
But with the aid of use.
MACBETH. [Aside.] Come what come may,
Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.
BANQUO. Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure.
MACBETH. Give me your favor; my dull brain was wrought
With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your pains
Are register’d where every day I turn
The leaf to read them. Let us toward the King.
Think upon what hath chanced, and at more time,
The interim having weigh’d it, let us speak
Our free hearts each to other.
BANQUO. Very gladly.
MACBETH. Till then, enough. Come, friends.
Exeunt.
3.
Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593)
The Tragicall History of Doctor Faustus (c 1589)
[ I. i Scene i]
Enter Faustus in his study.
FAUSTUS.
Settle thy studies Faustus, and begin
To sound the depth of that thou wilt professe,
Having commenc’d, be a Divine in shew,
Yet levell at the end of every Art,
And live and die in Aristotles workes.
Sweet Analitikes, tis thou hast ravisht me,
Bene disserere est finis logices.
Is to dispute well Logickes chiefest end?
Affoords this Art no greater miracle?
Then read no more, thou hast attain’d that end;
A greater subject fitteth Faustus wit:
Bid on kai me on farewell, Galen come:
Seeing ubi desinit philosophus, ibi incipit medicus.
Be a Phisitian Faustus, heape up gold,
And be eterniz’d for some wondrous cure:
Summum bonum medicinæ sanitas,
The end of Physicke is our bodies health:
Why Faustus, hast thou not attain’d that end?
Is not thy common talke sound Aphorismes?
Are not thy bils hung up as monuments,
Wherby whole Cities have escap’t the plague,
And thousand desperate maladies beene cur’d?
Yet art thou still but Faustus, and a man.
Couldst thou make men to live eternally,
Or being dead, raise them to life againe,
Then this profession were to be esteem’d.
Physicke farewell: where is Justinian?
Si una eademque res legatur duobus, alter rem, alter valorem rei, etc.
A petty case of paltry Legacies:
Exhereditare filium non potest pater, nisi Such is the subject of the Institute,
And universall body of the law.
This study fits a Mercenarie drudge,
Who aims at nothing but externall trash,
Too servile and illiberall for mee.
When all is done, Divinitie is best:
Jeromes Bible Faustus, view it well:
Stipendium peccati mors est: ha, Stipendium, etc.
The reward of sin is death? that’s hard:
Si peccasse negamus, fallimur, et nulla est in nobis veritas:
If we say that we have no sinne we deceive our
no truth in us.
Why then belike
We must sinne, and so consequently die,
I, we must die, an everlasting death.
What doctrine call you this? Che sera, sera:
What will be, shall be; Divinitie adeiw.
These Metaphisicks of Magitians,
And Negromantick bookes are heavenly.
Lines, Circles, Signes, Letters, and Characters,
I these are those that Faustus most desires.
O what a world of profite and delight,
Of power, of honour, and omnipotence,
Is promised to the Studious Artizan?
All things that move betweene the quiet Poles
Shall be at my command: Emperors and Kings,
Are but obey’d in their severall Provinces:
Nor can they raise the winde, or rend the cloudes:
But his dominion that exceeds in this,
Stretcheth as farre as doth the mind of man:
A sound Magitian is a Demi-god,
Here tire my braines to get a Deity.
Enter Wagner.
Wagner, commend me to my deerest friends,
The Germane Valdes and Cornelius,
Request them earnestly to visit me.
WAGNER.
I will sir.
Exit.
FAUSTUS.
Their conference will be a greater helpe to me,
Then all my labours, plod I ne’re so fast.
Enter the Angell and Spirit [Bad Angel].
GOOD ANGEL.
O Faustus, lay that damned booke aside,
selves, and there is
And gaze not on it least it tempt thy soule,
And heape Gods heavy wrath upon thy head.
Reade, reade the Scriptures: that is blasphemy.
BAD ANGEL.
Go forward Faustus in that famous Art
Wherein all natures treasury is contain’d:
Be thou on earth as Jove is in the skye,
Lord and Commander of these elements.
Exeunt Angels.
FAUSTUS.
How am I glutted with conceipt of this?
Shall I make spirits fetch me what I please?
Resolve me of all ambiguities?
Performe what desperate enterprise I will?
I’le have them flie to India for gold;
Ransacke the Ocean for Orient Pearle,
And search all corners of the new-found-world
For pleasant fruites, and Princely delicates.
I’le have them read me strange Philosophy,
And tell the secrets of all forraine Kings:
I’le have them wall all Germany with Brasse,
And make swift Rhine, circle faire Wittenberge:
I’le have them fill the publique Schooles with silke,
Wherewith the Students shall be bravely clad.
I’le leavy souldiers with the coyne they bring,
And chase the Prince of Parma from our Land,
And raigne sole King of all our Provinces.
Yea stranger engines for the brunt of warre,
Then was the fiery keele at Antwerpe bridge,
I’le make my servile spirits to invent.
Come Germane Valdes and Cornelius,
And make me blest with your sage conference.
Enter Valdes and Cornelius.
Valdes, sweete Valdes, and Cornelius,
Know that your words have won me at the last,
To practise Magicke and concealed Arts.
Yet not your words onely, but mine owne fantasie,
That will receive no object, for my head
But ruminates on Negromantique skill.
Philosophy is odious and obscure,
Both Law and Physicke are for petty wits:
Divinitie is basest of the three,
Unpleasant, harsh, contemptible and vilde:
‘Tis magick, magick, that hath ravisht me.
Then gentle friends aid me in this attempt,
And I, that have with concise Sillogismes
Gravel’d the Pastors of the Germane Church,
And made the flowring pride of Wittenberg
Swarme to my Problemes, as th’infernall spirits
On sweet Musæus when he came to hell,
Will be as cunning as Agrippa was,
Whose shadows made all Europe honour him.
VALDES.
Faustus, these bookes, thy wit, and our experience,
Shall make all Nations to Canonize us:
As Indian Moores, obey their Spanish Lords,
So shall the spirits of every element,
Be alwaies serviceable to us three:
Like Lyons shall they guard us when we please,
Like Almaine Rutters with their horsemens staves,
Or Lapland Giants trotting by our sides:
Sometimes like women or unwedded Maides,
Shadowing more beauty in their Airie browes,
Then has the white breasts of the Queene of love.
From Venice shall they drag huge Argosies,
And from America the Golden Fleece,
That yearely stuffes old Phillips treasury,
If learned Faustus will be resolute.
FAUSTUS.
Valdes, as resolute am I in this,
As thou to live, therefore object it not.
CORNELIUS.
The miracles that magick will performe,
Will make thee vow to study nothing else.
He that is grounded in Astrology,
Inricht with tongues, well seene in Minerals,
Hath all the Principles Magick doth require:
Then doubt not Faustus but to be renowm’d,
And more frequented for this mysterie,
Then heeretofore the Delphian Oracle.
The spirits tell me they can dry the sea,
And fetch the treasure of all forraine wrackes:
Yea all the wealth that our fore-fathers hid,
Within the massy entrailes of the earth:
Then tell me Faustus what shall we three want?
FAUSTUS.
Nothing Cornelius; O this cheeres my soule:
Come, shew me some demonstrations Magicall,
That I may conjure in some bushy Grove,
And have these joies in full possession.
VALDES.
Then hast thee to some solitary Grove,
And beare wise Bacons, and Abanus workes,
The Hebrew Psalter, and new Testament;
And whatsoever else is requisite,
We will informe thee e’re our conference cease.
CORNELIUS.
Valdes, first let him know the words of Art,
And then all other ceremonies learn’d,
Faustus may try his cunning by himselfe.
VALDES.
First I’le instruct thee in the rudiments,
And then wilt thou be perfecter then I.
FAUSTUS.
Then come and dine with me, and after meate
We’le canvase every quidditie thereof:
For e’re I sleep, I’le try what I can do:
This night I’le conjure tho I die therefore.
Exeunt omnes.
4.
The King James Version of the Bible
Chapter 20 of the Gospel according to Saint Matthew
1: For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out
early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard.
2: And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his
vineyard.
3: And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace,
4: And said unto them; Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give
you. And they went their way.
5: Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise.
6: And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith
unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle?
7: They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into
the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive.
8: So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the
labourers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first.
9: And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man
a penny.
10: But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they
likewise received every man a penny.
11: And when they had received it, they murmured against the goodman of the house,
12: Saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto
us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day.
13: But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou
agree with me for a penny?
14: Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee.
15: Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I
am good?
16: So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.
17: And Jesus going up to Jerusalem took the twelve disciples apart in the way, and said
unto them,
18: Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief
priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death,
19: And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and
the third day he shall rise again.
20: Then came to him the mother of Zebedee's children with her sons, worshipping him,
and desiring a certain thing of him.
21: And he said unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that these my two
sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom.
22: But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the
cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?
They say unto him, We are able.
23: And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the
baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine
to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.
24: And when the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation against the two
brethren.
25: But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles
exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them.
26: But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be
your minister;
27: And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant:
28: Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give
his life a ransom for many.
29: And as they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed him.
30: And, behold, two blind men sitting by the way side, when they heard that Jesus
passed by, cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David.
31: And the multitude rebuked them, because they should hold their peace: but they cried
the more, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David.
32: And Jesus stood still, and called them, and said, What will ye that I shall do unto
you?
33: They say unto him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened.
34: So Jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes: and immediately their eyes
received sight, and they followed him.
Chapter 24 of the Gospel according to Saint Matthew
1: In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.
2: And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from
heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.
3: His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow:
4: And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men.
5: And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek
Jesus, which was crucified.
6: He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.
7: And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he
goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you.
8: And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to
bring his disciples word.
9: And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And
they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him.
10: Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid: go tell my brethren that they go into
Galilee, and there shall they see me.
11: Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch came into the city, and
shewed unto the chief priests all the things that were done.
12: And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave
large money unto the soldiers,
13: Saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept.
14: And if this come to the governor's ears, we will persuade him, and secure you.
15: So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly
reported among the Jews until this day.
16: Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had
appointed them.
17: And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted.
18: And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven
and in earth.
19: Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
20: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am
with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
5.
John Milton (1608-1674)
Paradise Lost (1667)
BOOK 1
THE ARGUMENT
This first Book proposes, first in brief, the whole Subject, Mans disobedience, and the
loss thereupon of Paradise wherein he was plac’t: Then touches the prime cause of his
fall, the Serpent, or rather Satan in the Serpent; who revolting from God, and drawing to
his side many Legions of Angels, was by the command of God driven out of Heaven with
all his Crew into the great Deep. Which action past over, the Poem hasts into the midst of
things, presenting Satan with his Angels now fallen into Hell, describ’d here, not in the
Center (for Heaven and Earth may be suppos’d as yet not made, certainly not yet accurst)
but in a place of utter darkness, fitliest call’d Chaos: Here Satan with his Angels lying on
the burning Lake, thunder-struck and astonisht, after a certain space recovers, as from
confusion, calls up him who next in Order and Dignity lay by him; they confer of thir
miserable fall. Satan awakens all his Legions, who lay till then in the same manner
confounded; They rise, thir Numbers, array of Battel, thir chief Leaders nam’d, according
to the Idols known afterwards in Canaan and the Countries adjoyning. To these Satan
directs his Speech, comforts them with hope yet of regaining Heaven, but tells them lastly
of a new World and new kind of Creature to be created, according to an ancient
Prophesie or report in Heaven; for that Angels were long before this visible Creation, was
the opinion of many ancient Fathers. To find out the truth of this Prophesie, and what to
determin thereon he refers to a full Councel. What his Associates thence attempt.
Pandemonium the Palace of Satan rises, suddenly built out of the Deep: The infernal
Peers there sit in Councel.
OF Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit
Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal tast
Brought Death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat, [ 5 ]
Sing Heav’nly Muse,that on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That Shepherd, who first taught the chosen Seed,
In the Beginning how the Heav’ns and Earth
Rose out of Chaos: Or if Sion Hill [ 10 ]
Delight thee more, and Siloa’s Brook that flow’d
Fast by the Oracle of God; I thence
Invoke thy aid to my adventrous Song,
That with no middle flight intends to soar
Above th’ Aonian Mount, while it pursues [ 15 ]
Things unattempted yet in Prose or Rhime.
And chiefly Thou O Spirit, that dost prefer
Before all Temples th’ upright heart and pure,
Instruct me, for Thou know’st; Thou from the first
Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread [ 20 ]
Dove-like satst brooding on the vast Abyss
And mad’st it pregnant: What in me is dark
Illumin, what is low raise and support;
That to the highth of this great Argument
I may assert Eternal Providence, [ 25 ]
And justifie the wayes of God to men.
Say first, for Heav’n hides nothing from thy view
Nor the deep Tract of Hell, say first what cause
Mov’d our Grand Parents in that happy State,
Favour’d of Heav’n so highly, to fall off [ 30 ]
From thir Creator, and transgress his Will
For one restraint, Lords of the World besides?
Who first seduc’d them to that foul revolt?
Th’ infernal Serpent; he it was, whose guile
Stird up with Envy and Revenge, deceiv’d [ 35 ]
The Mother of Mankind, what time his Pride
Had cast him out from Heav’n, with all his Host
Of Rebel Angels, by whose aid aspiring
To set himself in Glory above his Peers,
He trusted to have equal’d the most High, [ 40 ]
If he oppos’d; and with ambitious aim
Against the Throne and Monarchy of God
Rais’d impious War in Heav’n and Battel proud
With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power
Hurld headlong flaming from th’ Ethereal Skie [ 45 ]
With hideous ruine and combustion down
To bottomless perdition, there to dwell
In Adamantine Chains and penal Fire,
Who durst defie th’ Omnipotent to Arms.
Nine times the Space that measures Day and Night [ 50 ]
To mortal men, he with his horrid crew
Lay vanquisht, rowling in the fiery Gulfe
Confounded though immortal: But his doom
Reserv’d him to more wrath; for now the thought
Both of lost happiness and lasting pain [ 55 ]
Torments him; round he throws his baleful eyes
That witness’d huge affliction and dismay
Mixt with obdurate pride and stedfast hate:
At once as far as Angels kenn he views
The dismal Situation waste and wilde, [ 60 ]
A Dungeon horrible, on all sides round
As one great Furnace flam’d, yet from those flames
No light, but rather darkness visible
Serv’d onely to discover sights of woe,
Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace [ 65 ]
And rest can never dwell, hope never comes
That comes to all; but torture without end
Still urges, and a fiery Deluge, fed
With ever-burning Sulphur unconsum’d:
Such place Eternal Justice had prepar’d [ 70 ]
For those rebellious, here thir Prison ordain’d
In utter darkness, and thir portion set
As far remov’d from God and light of Heav’n
As from the Center thrice to th’ utmost Pole.
O how unlike the place from whence they fell! [ 75 ]
There the companions of his fall, o’rewhelm’d
With Floods and Whirlwinds of tempestuous fire,
He soon discerns, and weltring by his side
One next himself in power, and next in crime,
Long after known in Palestine, and nam’d [ 80 ]
Beelzebub. To whom th’ Arch-Enemy,
And thence in Heav’n call’d Satan, with bold words
Breaking the horrid silence thus began.
If thou beest he; But O how fall’n! how chang’d
From him, who in the happy Realms of Light [ 85 ]
Cloth’d with transcendent brightness didst out-shine
Myriads though bright: If he Whom mutual league,
United thoughts and counsels, equal hope
And hazard in the Glorious Enterprize,
Joynd with me once, now misery hath joynd [ 90 ]
In equal ruin: into what Pit thou seest
From what highth fall’n, so much the stronger prov’d
He with his Thunder: and till then who knew
The force of those dire Arms? yet not for those,
Nor what the Potent Victor in his rage [ 95 ]
Can else inflict, do I repent or change,
Though chang’d in outward lustre; that fixt mind
And high disdain, from sence of injur’d merit,
That with the mightiest rais’d me to contend,
And to the fierce contention brought along [ 100 ]
Innumerable force of Spirits arm’d
That durst dislike his reign, and me preferring,
His utmost power with adverse power oppos’d
In dubious Battel on the Plains of Heav’n,
And shook his throne. What though the field be lost? [ 105 ]
All is not lost; the unconquerable Will,
And study of revenge, immortal hate,
And courage never to submit or yield:
And what is else not to be overcome?
That Glory never shall his wrath or might [ 110 ]
Extort from me. To bow and sue for grace
With suppliant knee, and deifie his power,
Who from the terrour of this Arm so late
Doubted his Empire, that were low indeed,
That were an ignominy and shame beneath [ 115 ]
This downfall; since by Fate the strength of Gods
And this Empyreal substance cannot fail,
Since through experience of this great event
In Arms not worse, in foresight much advanc’t,
We may with more successful hope resolve [ 120 ]
To wage by force or guile eternal Warr
Irreconcileable, to our grand Foe,
Who now triumphs, and in th’ excess of joy
Sole reigning holds the Tyranny of Heav’n.
So spake th’ Apostate Angel, though in pain, [ 125 ]
Vaunting aloud, but rackt with deep despare:
And him thus answer’d soon his bold Compeer.
O Prince, O Chief of many Throned Powers,
That led th’ imbattelld Seraphim to Warr
Under thy conduct, and in dreadful deeds [ 130 ]
Fearless, endanger’d Heav’ns perpetual King;
And put to proof his high Supremacy,
Whether upheld by strength, or Chance, or Fate,
Too well I see and rue the dire event,
That with sad overthrow and foul defeat [ 135 ]
Hath lost us Heav’n, and all this mighty Host
In horrible destruction laid thus low,
As far as Gods and Heav’nly Essences
Can perish: for the mind and spirit remains
Invincible, and vigour soon returns, [ 140 ]
Though all our Glory extinct, and happy state
Here swallow’d up in endless misery.
But what if he our Conquerour, (whom I now
Of force believe Almighty, since no less
Then such could hav orepow’rd such force as ours) [ 145 ]
Have left us this our spirit and strength intire
Strongly to suffer and support our pains,
That we may so suffice his vengeful ire,
Or do him mightier service as his thralls
By right of Warr, what e’re his business be [ 150 ]
Here in the heart of Hell to work in Fire,
Or do his Errands in the gloomy Deep;
What can it then avail though yet we feel
Strength undiminisht, or eternal being
To undergo eternal punishment? [ 155 ]
Whereto with speedy words th’ Arch-fiend reply’d.
Fall’n Cherube, to be weak is miserable
Doing or Suffering: but of this be sure,
To do ought good never will be our task,
But ever to do ill our sole delight, [ 160 ]
As being the contrary to his high will
Whom we resist. If then his Providence
Out of our evil seek to bring forth good,
Our labour must be to pervert that end,
And out of good still to find means of evil; [ 165 ]
Which oft times may succeed, so as perhaps
Shall grieve him, if I fail not, and disturb
His inmost counsels from thir destind aim.
But see the angry Victor hath recall’d
His Ministers of vengeance and pursuit [ 170 ]
Back to the Gates of Heav’n: The Sulphurous Hail
Shot after us in storm, oreblown hath laid
The fiery Surge, that from the Precipice
Of Heav’n receiv’d us falling, and the Thunder,
Wing’d with red Lightning and impetuous rage, [ 175 ]
Perhaps hath spent his shafts, and ceases now
To bellow through the vast and boundless Deep.
Let us not slip th’ occasion, whether scorn,
Or satiate fury yield it from our Foe.
Seest thou yon dreary Plain, forlorn and wilde, [ 180 ]
The seat of desolation, voyd of light,
Save what the glimmering of these livid flames
Casts pale and dreadful? Thither let us tend
From off the tossing of these fiery waves,
There rest, if any rest can harbour there, [ 185 ]
And reassembling our afflicted Powers,
Consult how we may henceforth most offend
Our Enemy, our own loss how repair,
How overcome this dire Calamity,
What reinforcement we may gain from Hope, [ 190 ]
If not what resolution from despare.
Thus Satan talking to his neerest Mate
With Head up-lift above the wave, and Eyes
That sparkling blaz’d, his other Parts besides
Prone on the Flood, extended long and large [ 195 ]
Lay floating many a rood, in bulk as huge
As whom the Fables name of monstrous size,
Titanian, or Earth-born, that warr’d on Jove,
Briareos or Typhon, whom the Den
By ancient Tarsus held, or that Sea-beast [ 200 ]
Leviathan, which God of all his works
Created hugest that swim th’ Ocean stream:
Him haply slumbring on the Norway foam
The Pilot of some small night-founder’d Skiff,
Deeming some Island, oft, as Sea-men tell, [ 205 ]
With fixed Anchor in his skaly rind
Moors by his side under the Lee, while Night
Invests the Sea, and wished Morn delayes:
So stretcht out huge in length the Arch-fiend lay
Chain’d on the burning Lake, nor ever thence [ 210 ]
Had ris’n or heav’d his head, but that the will
And high permission of all-ruling Heaven
Left him at large to his own dark designs,
That with reiterated crimes he might
Heap on himself damnation, while he sought [ 215 ]
Evil to others, and enrag’d might see
How all his malice serv’d but to bring forth
Infinite goodness, grace and mercy shewn
On Man by him seduc’t, but on himself
Treble confusion, wrath and vengeance pour’d. [ 220 ]
Forthwith upright he rears from off the Pool
His mighty Stature; on each hand the flames
Drivn backward slope thir pointing spires, and rowld
In billows, leave i’th’ midst a horrid Vale.
Then with expanded wings he stears his flight [ 225 ]
Aloft, incumbent on the dusky Air
That felt unusual weight, till on dry Land
He lights, if it were Land that ever burn’d
With solid, as the Lake with liquid fire;
And such appear’d in hue, as when the force [ 230 ]
Of subterranean wind transports a Hill
Torn from Pelorus, or the shatter’d side
Of thundring Ætna, whose combustible
And fewel’d entrals thence conceiving Fire,
Sublim’d with Mineral fury, aid the Winds, [ 235 ]
And leave a singed bottom all involv’d
With stench and smoak: Such resting found the sole
Of unblest feet. Him followed his next Mate,
Both glorying to have scap’t the Stygian flood
As Gods, and by thir own recover’d strength, [ 240 ]
Not by the sufferance of supernal Power.
Is this the Region, this the Soil, the Clime,
Said then the lost Arch-Angel, this the seat
That we must change for Heav’n, this mournful gloom
For that celestial light? Be it so, since he [ 245 ]
Who now is Sovran can dispose and bid
What shall be right: fardest from him is best
Whom reason hath equald, force hath made supream
Above his equals. Farewel happy Fields
Where Joy for ever dwells: Hail horrours, hail [ 250 ]
Infernal world, and thou profoundest Hell
Receive thy new Possessor: One who brings
A mind not to be chang’d by Place or Time.
The mind is its own place, and in it self
Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n. [ 255 ]
What matter where, if I be still the same,
And what I should be, all but less then he
Whom Thunder hath made greater? Here at least
We shall be free; th’ Almighty hath not built
Here for his envy, will not drive us hence: [ 260 ]
Here we may reign secure, and in my choyce
To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav’n.
But wherefore let we then our faithful friends,
Th’ associates and copartners of our loss [ 265 ]
Lye thus astonisht on th’ oblivious Pool,
And call them not to share with us their part
In this unhappy Mansion, or once more
With rallied Arms to try what may be yet
Regaind in Heav’n, or what more lost in Hell? [ 270 ]
So Satan spake, and him Beelzebub
Thus answer’d. Leader of those Armies bright,
Which but th’ Onmipotent none could have foyld,
If once they hear that voyce, thir liveliest pledge
Of hope in fears and dangers, heard so oft [ 275 ]
In worst extreams, and on the perilous edge
Of battel when it rag’d, in all assaults
Thir surest signal, they will soon resume
New courage and revive, though now they lye
Groveling and prostrate on yon Lake of Fire, [ 280 ]
As we erewhile, astounded and amaz’d,
No wonder, fall’n such a pernicious highth.
He scarce had ceas’t when the superiour Fiend
Was moving toward the shoar; his ponderous shield
Ethereal temper, massy, large and round, [ 285 ]
Behind him cast; the broad circumference
Hung on his shoulders like the Moon, whose Orb
Through Optic Glass the Tuscan Artist views
At Ev’ning from the top of Fesole,
Or in Valdarno, to descry new Lands, [ 290 ]
Rivers or Mountains in her spotty Globe.
His Spear, to equal which the tallest Pine
Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the Mast
Of some great Ammiral, were but a wand,
He walkt with to support uneasie steps [ 295 ]
Over the burning Marle, not like those steps
On Heavens Azure, and the torrid Clime
Smote on him sore besides, vaulted with Fire;
Nathless he so endur’d, till on the Beach
Of that inflamed Sea, he stood and call’d [ 300 ]
His Legions, Angel Forms, who lay intrans’t
Thick as Autumnal Leaves that strow the Brooks
In Vallombrosa, where th’ Etrurian shades
High overarch’t imbowr; or scatterd sedge
Afloat, when with fierce Winds Orion arm’d [ 305 ]
Hath vext the Red-Sea Coast, whose waves orethrew
Busiris and his Memphian Chivalry,
While with perfidious hatred they pursu’d
The Sojourners of Goshen, who beheld
From the safe shore thir floating Carkases [ 310 ]
And broken Chariot Wheels, so thick bestrown
Abject and lost lay these, covering the Flood,
Under amazement of thir hideous change.
He call’d so loud, that all the hollow Deep
Of Hell resounded. Princes, Potentates, [ 315 ]
Warriers, the Flowr of Heav’n, once yours, now lost,
If such astonishment as this can sieze
Eternal spirits; or have ye chos’n this place
After the toyl of Battel to repose
Your wearied vertue, for the ease you find [ 320 ]
To slumber here, as in the Vales of Heav’n?
Or in this abject posture have ye sworn
To adore the Conquerour? who now beholds
Cherube and Seraph rowling in the Flood
With scatter’d Arms and Ensigns, till anon [ 325 ]
His swift pursuers from Heav’n Gates discern
Th’ advantage, and descending tread us down
Thus drooping, or with linked Thunderbolts
Transfix us to the bottom of this Gulfe.
Awake, arise, or be for ever fall’n. [ 330 ]
They heard, and were abasht, and up they sprung
Upon the wing, as when men wont to watch
On duty, sleeping found by whom they dread,
Rouse and bestir themselves ere well awake.
Nor did they not perceave the evil plight [ 335 ]
In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel;
Yet to thir Generals Voyce they soon obeyd
Innumerable. As when the potent Rod
Of Amrams Son in Egypts evill day
Wav’d round the Coast, up call’d a pitchy cloud [ 340 ]
Of Locusts, warping on the Eastern Wind,
That ore the Realm of impious Pharaoh hung
Like Night, and darken’d all the Land of Nile:
So numberless were those bad Angels seen
Hovering on wing under the Cope of Hell [ 345 ]
’Twixt upper, nether, and surrounding Fires;
Till, as a signal giv’n, th’ uplifted Spear
Of thir great Sultan waving to direct
Thir course, in even ballance down they light
On the firm brimstone, and fill all the Plain; [ 350 ]
A multitude, like which the populous North
Pour’d never from her frozen loyns, to pass
Rhene or the Danaw, when her barbarous Sons
Came like a Deluge on the South, and spread
Beneath Gibralter to the Lybian sands. [ 355 ]
Forthwith from every Squadron and each Band
The Heads and Leaders thither hast where stood
Thir great Commander; Godlike shapes and forms
Excelling human, Princely Dignities,
And Powers that earst in Heaven sat on Thrones; [ 360 ]
Though of thir Names in heav’nly Records now
Be no memorial blotted out and ras’d
By thir Rebellion, from the Books of Life.
Nor had they yet among the Sons of Eve
Got them new Names, till wandring ore the Earth, [ 365 ]
Through Gods high sufferance for the tryal of man,
By falsities and lyes the greatest part
Of Mankind they corrupted to forsake
God thir Creator, and th’ invisible
Glory of him that made them, to transform [ 370 ]
Oft to the Image of a Brute, adorn’d
With gay Religions full of Pomp and Gold,
And Devils to adore for Deities:
Then were they known to men by various Names,
And various Idols through the Heathen World. [ 375 ]
Say, Muse, thir Names then known, who first, who last,
Rous’d from the slumber, on that fiery Couch,
At thir great Emperors call, as next in worth
Came singly where he stood on the bare strand,
While the promiscuous croud stood yet aloof? [ 380 ]
The chief were those who from the Pit of Hell
Roaming to seek thir prey on earth, durst fix
Thir Seats long after next the Seat of God,
Thir Altars by his Altar, Gods ador’d
Among the Nations round, and durst abide [ 385 ]
Jehovah thundring out of Sion, thron’d
Between the Cherubim; yea, often plac’d
Within his Sanctuary it self thir Shrines,
Abominations; and with cursed things
His holy Rites, and solemn Feasts profan’d, [ 390 ]
And with thir darkness durst affront his light.
First Moloch, horrid King besmear’d with blood
Of human sacrifice, and parents tears,
Though for the noyse of Drums and Timbrels loud
Thir childrens cries unheard, that past through fire [ 395 ]
To his grim Idol. Him the Ammonite
Worshipt in Rabba and her watry Plain,
In Argob and in Basan, to the stream
Of utmost Arnon. Nor content with such
Audacious neighbourhood, the wisest heart [ 400 ]
Of Solomon he led by fraud to build
His Temple right against the Temple of God
On that opprobrious Hill, and made his Grove
The pleasant Vally of Hinnom, Tophet thence
And black Gehenna call’d, the Type of Hell. [ 405 ]
Next Chemos, th’ obscene dread of Moabs Sons,
From Aroar to Nebo, and the wild
Of Southmost Abarim; in Hesebon
And Horonaim, Seons Realm, beyond
The flowry Dale of Sibma clad with Vines, [ 410 ]
And Eleale to th’ Asphaltick Pool.
Peor his other Name, when he entic’d
Israel in Sittim on thir march from Nile
To do him wanton rites, which cost them woe.
Yet thence his lustful Orgies he enlarg’d [ 415 ]
Even to that Hill of scandal, by the Grove
Of Moloch homicide, lust hard by hate;
Till good Josiah drove them thence to Hell.
With these came they, who from the bordring flood
Of old Euphrates to the Brook that parts [ 420 ]
Egypt from Syrian ground, had general Names
Of Baalim and Ashtaroth, those male,
These Feminine. For Spirits when they please
Can either Sex assume, or both; so soft
And uncompounded is thir Essence pure, [ 425 ]
Not ti’d or manacl’d with joynt or limb,
Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones,
Like cumbrous flesh; but in what shape they choose
Dilated or condens’t, bright or obscure,
Can execute thir aerie purposes, [ 430 ]
And works of love or enmity fulfill.
For those the Race of Israel oft forsook
Thir living strength, and unfrequented left
His righteous Altar, bowing lowly down
To bestial Gods; for which thir heads as low [ 435 ]
Bow’d down in Battel, sunk before the Spear
Of despicable foes. With these in troop
Came Astoreth, whom the Phoenicians call’d
Astarte, Queen of Heav’n, with crescent Horns;
To whose bright Image nightly by the Moon [ 440 ]
Sidonian Virgins paid thir Vows and Songs,
In Sion also not unsung, where stood
Her Temple on th’ offensive Mountain, built
By that uxorious King, whose heart though large,
Beguil’d by fair Idolatresses, fell [ 445 ]
To Idols foul. Thammuz came next behind,
Whose annual wound in Lebanon allur’d
The Syrian Damsels to lament his fate
In amorous dittyes all a Summers day,
While smooth Adonis from his native Rock [ 450 ]
Ran purple to the Sea, suppos’d with blood
Of Thammuz yearly wounded: the Love-tale
Infected Sions daughters with like heat,
Whose wanton passions in the sacred Porch
Ezekiel saw, when by the Vision led [ 455 ]
His eye survay’d the dark Idolatries
Of alienated Judah. Next came one
Who mourn’d in earnest, when the Captive Ark
Maim’d his brute Image, head and hands lopt off
In his own Temple, on the grunsel edge, [ 460 ]
Where he fell flat, and sham’d his Worshipers:
Dagon his Name, Sea Monster, upward Man
And downward Fish: yet had his Temple high
Rear’d in Azotus, dreaded through the Coast
Of Palestine, in Gath and Ascalon [ 465 ]
And Accaron and Gaza’s frontier bounds.
Him follow’d Rimmon, whose delightful Seat
Was fair Damascus, on the fertil Banks
Of Abbana and Pharphar, lucid streams.
He also against the house of God was bold: [ 470 ]
A Leper once he lost and gain’d a King,
Ahaz his sottish Conquerour, whom he drew
Gods Altar to disparage and displace
For one of Syrian mode, whereon to burn
His odious off’rings, and adore the Gods [ 475 ]
Whom he had vanquisht. After these appear’d
A crew who under Names of old Renown,
Osiris, Isis, Orus and their Train
With monstrous shapes and sorceries abus’d
Fanatic Egypt and her Priests, to seek [ 480 ]
Thir wandring Gods disguis’d in brutish forms
Rather then human. Nor did Israel scape
Th’ infection when thir borrow’d Gold compos’d
The Calf in Oreb: and the Rebel King
Doubl’d that sin in Bethel and in Dan, [ 485 ]
Lik’ning his Maker to the Grazed Ox,
Jehovah, who in one Night when he pass’d
From Egypt marching, equal’d with one stroke
Both her first born and all her bleating Gods.
Belial came last, then whom a Spirit more lewd [ 490 ]
Fell not from Heaven, or more gross to love
Vice for it self: To him no Temple stood
Or Altar smoak’d; yet who more oft then hee
In Temples and at Altars, when the Priest
Turns Atheist, as did Ely’s Sons, who fill’d [ 495 ]
With lust and violence the house of God.
In Courts and Palaces he also Reigns
And in luxurious Cities, where the noyse
Of riot ascends above thir loftiest Towrs,
And injury and outrage: And when Night [ 500 ]
Darkens the Streets, then wander forth the Sons
Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine.
Witness the Streets of Sodom, and that night
In Gibeah, when the hospitable door
Expos’d a Matron to avoid worse rape. [ 505 ]
These were the prime in order and in might;
The rest were long to tell, though far renown’d,
Th’ Ionian Gods, of Javans Issue held
Gods, yet confest later then Heav’n and Earth
Thir boasted Parents; Titan Heav’ns first born [ 510 ]
With his enormous brood, and birthright seis’d
By younger Saturn, he from mightier Jove
His own and Rhea’s Son like measure found;
So Jove usurping reign’d: these first in Creet
And Ida known, thence on the Snowy top [ 515 ]
Of cold Olympus rul’d the middle Air
Thir highest Heav’n; or on the Delphian Cliff,
Or in Dodona, and through all the bounds
Of Doric Land; or who with Saturn old
Fled over Adria to th’ Hesperian Fields, [ 520 ]
And ore the Celtic roam’d the utmost Isles.
All these and more came flocking; but with looks
Down cast and damp, yet such wherein appear’d
Obscure some glimps of joy, to have found thir chief
Not in despair, to have found themselves not lost [ 525 ]
In loss it self; which on his count’nance cast
Like doubtful hue: but he his wonted pride
Soon recollecting, with high words, that bore
Semblance of worth, not substance, gently rais’d
Thir fainting courage, and dispel’d thir fears. [ 530 ]
Then strait commands that at the warlike sound
Of Trumpets loud and Clarions be upreard
His mighty Standard; that proud honour claim’d
Azazel as his right, a Cherube tall:
Who forthwith from the glittering Staff unfurld [ 535 ]
Th’ Imperial Ensign, which full high advanc’t
Shon like a Meteor streaming to the Wind
With Gemms and Golden lustre rich imblaz’d,
Seraphic arms and Trophies: all the while
Sonorous mettal blowing Martial sounds: [ 540 ]
At which the universal Host upsent
A shout that tore Hells Concave, and beyond
Frighted the Reign of Chaos and old Night.
All in a moment through the gloom were seen
Ten thousand Banners rise into the Air [ 545 ]
With Orient Colours waving: with them rose
A Forest huge of Spears: and thronging Helms
Appear’d, and serried shields in thick array
Of depth immeasurable: Anon they move
In perfect Phalanx to the Dorian mood [ 550 ]
Of Flutes and soft Recorders; such as rais’d
To hight of noblest temper Hero’s old
Arming to Battel, and in stead of rage
Deliberate valour breath’d, firm and unmov’d
With dread of death to flight or foul retreat, [ 555 ]
Nor wanting power to mitigate and swage
With solemn touches, troubl’d thoughts, and chase
Anguish and doubt and fear and sorrow and pain
From mortal or immortal minds. Thus they
Breathing united force with fixed thought [ 560 ]
Mov’d on in silence to soft Pipes that charm’d
Thir painful steps o’re the burnt soyle; and now
Advanc’t in view, they stand, a horrid Front
Of dreadful length and dazling Arms, in guise
Of Warriers old with order’d Spear and Shield, [ 565 ]
Awaiting what command thir mighty Chief
Had to impose: He through the armed Files
Darts his experienc’t eye, and soon traverse
The whole Battalion views, thir order due,
Thir visages and stature as of Gods, [ 570 ]
Thir number last he summs. And now his heart
Distends with pride, and hardning in his strength
Glories: For never since created man,
Met such imbodied force, as nam’d with these
Could merit more then that small infantry [ 575 ]
Warr’d on by Cranes: though all the Giant brood
Of Phlegra with th’ Heroic Race were joyn’d
That fought at Theb’s and Ilium, on each side
Mixt with auxiliar Gods; and what resounds
In Fable or Romance of Uthers Son [ 580 ]
Begirt with British and Armoric Knights;
And all who since, Baptiz’d or Infidel
Jousted in Aspramont or Montalban,
Damasco, or Marocco, or Trebisond,
Or whom Biserta sent from Afric shore [ 585 ]
When Charlemain with all his Peerage fell
By Fontarabbia. Thus far these beyond
Compare of mortal prowess, yet observ’d
Thir dread commander: he above the rest
In shape and gesture proudly eminent [ 590 ]
Stood like a Towr; his form had yet not lost
All her Original brightness, nor appear’d
Less then Arch Angel ruind, and th’ excess
Of Glory obscur’d: As when the Sun new ris’n
Looks through the Horizontal misty Air [ 595 ]
Shorn of his Beams, or from behind the Moon
In dim Eclips disastrous twilight sheds
On half the Nations, and with fear of change
Perplexes Monarchs. Dark’n’d so, yet shon
Above them all th’ Arch Angel: but his face [ 600 ]
Deep scars of Thunder had intrencht, and care
Sat on his faded cheek, but under Browes
Of dauntless courage, and considerate Pride
Waiting revenge: cruel his eye, but cast
Signs of remorse and passion to behold [ 605 ]
The fellows of his crime, the followers rather
(Far other once beheld in bliss) condemn’d
For ever now to have thir lot in pain,
Millions of Spirits for his fault amerc’t
Of Heav’n, and from Eternal Splendors flung [ 610 ]
For his revolt, yet faithfull how they stood,
Thir Glory witherd. As when Heavens Fire
Hath scath’d the Forrest Oaks, or Mountain Pines,
With singed top thir stately growth though bare
Stands on the blasted Heath. He now prepar’d [ 615 ]
To speak; whereat thir doubl’d Ranks they bend
From wing to wing, and half enclose him round
With all his Peers: attention held them mute.
Thrice he assayd, and thrice in spight of scorn,
Tears such as Angels weep, burst forth: at last [ 620 ]
Words interwove with sighs found out thir way.
O Myriads of immortal Spirits, O Powers
Matchless, but with th’ Almighty, and that strife
Was not inglorious, though th’ event was dire,
As this place testifies, and this dire change [ 625 ]
Hateful to utter: but what power of mind
Foreseeing or presaging, from the Depth
Of knowledge past or present, could have fear’d,
How such united force of Gods, how such
As stood like these, could ever know repulse? [ 630 ]
For who can yet beleeve, though after loss,
That all these puissant Legions, whose exile
Hath emptied Heav’n, shall fail to re-ascend
Self-rais’d, and repossess thir native seat?
For mee be witness all the Host of Heav’n, [ 635 ]
If counsels different, or danger shun’d
By me, have lost our hopes. But he who reigns
Monarch in Heav’n, till then as one secure
Sat on his Throne, upheld by old repute,
Consent or custome, and his Regal State [ 640 ]
Put forth at full, but still his strength conceal’d,
Which tempted our attempt, and wrought our fall.
Henceforth his might we know, and know our own
So as not either to provoke, or dread
New warr, provok’t; our better part remains [ 645 ]
To work in close design, by fraud or guile
What force effected not: that he no less
At length from us may find, who overcomes
By force, hath overcome but half his foe.
Space may produce new Worlds; whereof so rife [ 650 ]
There went a fame in Heav’n that he ere long
Intended to create, and therein plant
A generation, whom his choice regard
Should favour equal to the Sons of Heaven:
Thither, if but to pry, shall be perhaps
Our first eruption, thither or elsewhere: [ 655 ]
For this Infernal Pit shall never hold
Cælestial Spirits in Bondage, nor th’ Abyss
Long under darkness cover. But these thoughts
Full Counsel must mature: Peace is despaird, [ 660 ]
For who can think Submission? Warr then, Warr
Open or understood must be resolv’d.
He spake: and to confirm his words, out-flew
Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs
Of mighty Cherubim; the sudden blaze [ 665 ]
Far round illumin’d hell: highly they rag’d
Against the Highest, and fierce with grasped arms
Clash’d on thir sounding Shields the din of war,
Hurling defiance toward the vault of Heav’n.
There stood a Hill not far whose griesly top [ 670 ]
Belch’d fire and rowling smoak; the rest entire
Shon with a glossie scurff, undoubted sign
That in his womb was hid metallic Ore,
The work of Sulphur. Thither wing’d with speed
A numerous Brigad hasten’d. As when Bands [ 675 ]
Of Pioners with Spade and Pickax arm’d
Forerun the Royal Camp, to trench a Field,
Or cast a Rampart. Mammon led them on,
Mammon, the least erected Spirit that fell
From heav’n, for ev’n in heav’n his looks and thoughts [ 680 ]
Were always downward bent, admiring more
The riches of Heav’ns pavement, trod’n Gold,
Then aught divine or holy else enjoy’d
In vision beatific: by him first
Men also, and by his suggestion taught, [ 685 ]
Ransack’d the Center, and with impious hands
Rifl’d the bowels of thir mother Earth
For Treasures better hid. Soon had his crew
Op’nd into the Hill a spacious wound
And dig’d out ribs of Gold. Let none admire [ 690 ]
That riches grow in Hell; that soyle may best
Deserve the precious bane. And here let those
Who boast in mortal things, and wond’ring tell
Of Babel, and the works of Memphian Kings
Learn how thir greatest Monuments of Fame, [ 695 ]
And Strength and Art are easily out-done
By Spirits reprobate, and in an hour
What in an age they with incessant toyle
And hands innumerable scarce perform.
Nigh on the Plain in many cells prepar’d, [ 700 ]
That underneath had veins of liquid fire
Sluc’d from the Lake, a second multitude
With wondrous Art found out the massie Ore,
Severing each kind, and scum’d the Bullion dross:
A third as soon had form’d within the ground [ 705 ]
A various mould, and from the boyling cells
By strange conveyance fill’d each hollow nook,
As in an Organ from one blast of wind
To many a row of Pipes the sound-board breaths.
Anon out of the earth a Fabrick huge [ 710 ]
Rose like an Exhalation, with the sound
Of Dulcet Symphonies and voices sweet,
Built like a Temple, where Pilasters round
Were set, and Doric pillars overlaid
With Golden Architrave; nor did there want [ 715 ]
Cornice or Freeze, with bossy Sculptures grav’n,
The Roof was fretted Gold. Not Babilon,
Nor great Alcairo such magnificence
Equal’d in all thir glories, to inshrine
Belus or Serapis thir Gods, or seat [ 720 ]
Thir Kings, when Ægypt with Assyria strove
In wealth and luxurie. Th’ ascending pile
Stood fixt her stately highth, and strait the dores
Op’ning thir brazen foulds discover wide
Within, her ample spaces, o’re the smooth [ 725 ]
And level pavement: from the arched roof
Pendant by suttle Magic many a row
Of Starry Lamps and blazing Cressets fed
With Naphtha and Asphaltus yeilded light
As from a sky. The hasty multitude [ 730 ]
Admiring enter’d, and the work some praise
And some the Architect: his hand was known
In Heav’n by many a Towred structure high,
Where Scepter’d Angels held thir residence,
And sat as Princes, whom the supreme King [ 735 ]
Exalted to such power, and gave to rule,
Each in his Hierarchie, the Orders bright.
Nor was his name unheard or unador’d
In ancient Greece; and in Ausonian land
Men call’d him Mulciber; and how he fell [ 740 ]
From Heav’n, they fabl’d, thrown by angry Jove
Sheer o’re the Chrystal Battlements: from Morn
To Noon he fell, from Noon to dewy Eve,
A Summers day; and with the setting Sun
Dropt from the Zenith like a falling Star, [ 745 ]
On Lemnos th’ Ægean Ile: thus they relate,
Erring; for he with this rebellious rout
Fell long before; nor aught avail’d him now
To have built in Heav’n high Towrs; nor did he scape
By all his Engins, but was headlong sent [ 750 ]
With his industrious crew to build in hell.
Mean while the winged Haralds by command
Of Sovran power, with awful Ceremony
And Trumpets sound throughout the Host proclaim
A solemn Councel forthwith to be held [ 755 ]
At Pandæmonium, the high Capital
Of Satan and his Peers: thir summons call’d
From every Band and squared Regiment
By place or choice the worthiest; they anon
With hunderds and with thousands trooping came [ 760 ]
Attended: all access was throng’d, the Gates
And Porches wide, but chief the spacious Hall
(Though like a cover’d field, where Champions bold
Wont ride in arm’d, and at the Soldans chair
Defi’d the best of Paynim chivalry [ 765 ]
To mortal combat or carreer with Lance)
Thick swarm’d, both on the ground and in the air,
Brusht with the hiss of russling wings. As Bees
In spring time, when the Sun with Taurus rides,
Pour forth thir populous youth about the Hive [ 770 ]
In clusters; they among fresh dews and flowers
Flie to and fro, or on the smoothed Plank,
The suburb of thir Straw-built Cittadel,
New rub’d with Baum, expatiate and confer
Thir State affairs. So thick the aerie crowd [ 775 ]
Swarm’d and were straitn’d; till the Signal giv’n.
Behold a wonder! they but now who seemd
In bigness to surpass Earths Giant Sons
Now less then smallest Dwarfs, in narrow room
Throng numberless, like that Pigmean Race [ 780 ]
Beyond the Indian Mount, or Faerie Elves,
Whose midnight Revels, by a Forrest side
Or Fountain some belated Peasant sees,
Or dreams he sees, while over-head the Moon
Sits Arbitress, and neerer to the Earth [ 785 ]
Wheels her pale course, they on thir mirth and dance
Intent, with jocond Music charm his ear;
At once with joy and fear his heart rebounds.
Thus incorporeal Spirits to smallest forms
Reduc’d thir shapes immense, and were at large, [ 790 ]
Though without number still amidst the Hall
Of that infernal Court. But far within
And in thir own dimensions like themselves
The great Seraphic Lords and Cherubim
In close recess and secret conclave sat [ 795 ]
A thousand Demy-Gods on golden seats,
Frequent and full. After short silence then
And summons read, the great consult began.
The End of the First Book.
6.
John Bunyan (1628-1688)
The Pilgrim’s Progress From This World, to That Which is
to Come (1678, 1684)
Delivered under the Similitude of a Dream wherein is discovered the manner of his
setting out, his dangerous Journey, and safe Arrival at the Desired Country
The first Part
In the similitude of a Dream.
As I walk’d through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place, where was
a Denn; And I laid me down in that place to sleep: And as I slept I dreamed a Dream. I
dreamed, and behold I saw a Man cloathed with Raggs, standing in a certain place, with
his face from his own House, a Book in his hand, and a great burden upon his Back. I
looked, and saw him open the Book, and Read therein; and as he read, he wept and
trembled: and not being able longer to contain, he brake out with a lamentable cry;
saying, what shall I do?
In this plight therefore he went home, and refrained himself as long as he could, that
his Wife and Children should not perceive his distress; but he could not be silent long,
because that his trouble increased: wherefore at length he brake his mind to his Wife and
Children; and thus he began to talk to them, O my dear Wife, said he, and you the
Children of my bowels, I your dear friend am in my self undone, by reason of a burden
that lieth hard upon me: moreover, I am for certain informed, that this our City will be
burned with fire from Heaven, in which fearful overthrow, both my self, with thee, my
Wife, and you my sweet babes, shall miserably come to ruine; except (the which, yet I
see not) some way of escape can be found, whereby we may be delivered. At this his
Relations were sore amazed; not for that they believed, that what he said to them was
true, but because they thought, that some frenzy distemper had got into his head:
therefore, it drawing towards night, and they hoping that sleep might settle his brains,
with all hast they got him to bed; but the night was as troublesome to him as the day:
wherefore instead of sleeping, he spent it in sighs and tears. So when the morning was
come, they would know how he did; and he told them worse and worse. He also set to
talking to them again, but they began to be hardened; they also thought to drive away his
distemper by harsh and surly carriages to him: sometimes they would deride, sometimes
they would chide, and sometimes they would quite neglect him: wherefore he began to
retire himself to his Chamber to pray for, and pity them; and also to condole his own
misery: he would also walk solitarily in the Fields, sometimes reading, and sometimes
praying: and thus for some days he spent his time.
Now, I saw upon a time, when he was walking in the Fields, that he was (as he was
wont) reading in his Book, and greatly distressed in his mind; and as he read, he burst
out, as he had done before, crying, What shall I do to be saved?
I saw also that he looked this way, and that way, as if he would run; yet he stood still,
because, as I perceived, he could not tell which way to go. I looked then, and saw a man
named Evangelist coming to him, and asked, Wherefore dost thou cry? He answered, Sir,
I perceive, by the Book in my hand, that I am Condemned to die, and after that to come to
Judgment; and I find that I am not willing to do the first, nor able to do the second.
Then said Evangelist, Why not willing to die? since this life is attended with so many
evils? The Man answered, Because I fear that this burden that is upon my back, will sink
me lower then the Grave; and I shall fall into Tophet. And Sir, if I be not fit to go to
Prison, I am not fit (I am sure) to go to Judgement, and from thence to Execution; and the
thoughts of these things make me cry.
Then said Evangelist, If this be thy condition, why standest thou still? He answered,
Because I know not whither to go, Then he gave him a Parchment-Roll, and there was
written within, Fly from the wrath to come.
The Man therefore Read it, and looking upon Evangelist very carefully; said, Whither
must I fly? Then said Evangelist, pointing with his finger over a very wide Field, Do you
see yonder Wicket-gate? The Man said, No. Then said the other, Do you see yonder
shining light? He said, I think I do. Then said Evangelist, Keep that light in your eye, and
go up directly thereto, so shalt thou see the Gate; at which when thou knockest, it shall be
told thee what thou shalt do.
So I saw in my Dream, that the Man began to run; Now he had not run far from his
own door, but his Wife and Children perceiving it, began to cry after him to return: but
the Man put his fingers in his Ears, and ran on crying, Life, Life, Eternal Life: so he
looked not behind him, but fled towards the middle of the Plain.
The Neighbors also came out to see him run, and as he ran, some mocked, others
threatned; and some cried after him to return: Now among those that did so, there were
two that were resolved to fetch him back by force. The name of the one was Obstinate,
and the name of the other Pliable. Now by this time the Man was got a good distance
from them; But however they were resolved to pursue him; which they did and in little
time they over-took him. Then said the Man, Neighbours, Wherefore are you come? They
said, To perswade you to go back with us; but he said, That can by no means be: You
dwell, said he, in the City of Destruction, (the place also where I was born) I see it to be
so; and dying there, sooner or later, you will sink lower then the Grave, into a place that
burns with Fire and Brimstone: Be content good Neighbours, and go along with me.
What! said Obstinate, and leave our Friends, and our Comforts behind us!
Yes, said Christian, (for that was his name) because, that all, which you shall forsake,
is not worthy to be compared with a little of that that I am seeking to enjoy, and if you
will go along with me, and hold it, you shall fare as I my self; for there where I go, is
enough, and to spare; Come away, and prove my words.
OBST. What are the things you seek, since you leave all the world to find them?
CHR. I seek an Inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away; and it is
laid up in Heaven, and fast there, to be bestowed at the time appointed, on them that
diligently seek it. Read it so, if you will, in my Book.
OBST. Tush, said Obstinate, away with your Book; will you go back with us, or no?
CHR. No, not I, said the other; because I have laid my hand to the Plow.
OBST. Come then, Neighbour Pliable, let us turn again, and go home without him;
there is a company of these Craz’d-headed Coxcombs, that when they take a fancy by the
end, are wiser in their own eyes then seven men that can render a reason.
PLI. Then said Pliable, Don’t revile; if what the good Christian says is true, the things
he looks after are better then ours; my heart inclines to go with my Neighbour.
OBST. What! more Fools still? be ruled by me and go back; who knows whither such
a brain-sick fellow will lead you? go back, go back, and be wise.
CHR. Come with me Neighbour Pliable, there are such things to be had which I spoke
of, and many more Glories besides; If you believe not me, read here in this Book; and for
the truth of what is exprest therein, behold, all is confirmed by the blood of him that
made it.
PLI. Well Neighbour Obstinate (said Pliable) I begin to come to a point; I intend to go
along with this good man, and to cast in my lot with him: But my good Companion, do
you know the way to this desired place?
CHR. I am directed by a man whose name is Evangelist, to speed me to a little Gate
that is before us, where we shall receive instruction about the way.
PLI. Come then, good Neighbour, let us be going: Then they went both together.
OBST. And I will go back to my place, said Obstinate: I will be no Companion of such
mis-led fantastical Fellows.
Now I saw in my Dream, that when Obstinate was gon back, Christian and Pliable
went talking over the Plain; and thus they began their discourse,
CHR. Come Neighbour Pliable, how do you do? I am glad you are perswaded to go
along with me; and had even Obstinate himself, but felt what I have felt of the Powers,
and Terrours of what is yet unseen, he would not thus lightly have given us the back.
PLIABLE. Come Neighbour Christian, since there is none but us two here, tell me now
further, what the things are: and how to be enjoyed, whither we are going.
CHR. I can better conceive of them with my Mind, then speak of them with my
Tongue: But yet since you are desirous to know, I will read of them in my Book.
PLI. And do you think that the words of your Book are certainly true?
CHR. Yes verily, for it was made by him that cannot lye.
PLI. Well said; what things are they?
CHR. There is an endless Kingdom to be Inhabited, and everlasting life to be given us;
that we may Inhabit that Kingdom for ever.
PLI. Well said, and what else?
CHR. There are Crowns of Glory to be given us; and Garments that will make us shine
like the Sun in the Firmament of Heaven.
PLI. This is excellent; And what else?
CHR. There shall be no more crying, nor sorrow; For he that is owner of the place, will
wipe all tears from our eyes.
PLI. And what company shall we have there?
CHR. There we shall be with Seraphims, and Cherubins, Creatures that will dazle your
eyes to look on them: There also you shall meet with thousands, and ten thousands that
have gone before us to that place; none of them are hurtful, but loving, and holy; every
one walking in the sight of God; and standing in his presence with acceptance for ever: In
a word, there we shall see the Elders with their Golden Crowns: There we shall see the
Holy Virgins with their Golden Harps.
There we shall see Men that by the World were cut in pieces, burnt in flames, eaten of
Beasts, drownded in the Seas, for the love that they bare to the Lord of the place; all well,
and cloathed with Immortality, as with a Garment.
PLI. The hearing of this is enough to ravish ones heart; but are these things to be
enjoyed? how shall we get to be Sharers hereof?
7.
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)
Gullivers Travels (1726)
PART I
A VOYAGE TO LILLIPUT
CHAPTER I.
The Author giveth some Account of himself and Family: His first Inducements to
travel. He is shipwreck'd, and swims for his Life: Gets safe on shoar in the Country of
Lilliput: Is made a Prisoner, and carry'd up the Country.
MY FATHER had a small Estate in Nottinghamshire; I was the Third of five Sons. He
sent me to Emanuel-College in Cambridge, at Fourteen Years old, where I resided three
Years, and applyed my self close to my Studies: But the Charge of maintaining me
(although I had a very scanty Allowance) being too great for a narrow Fortune; I was
bound Apprentice to Mr. James Bates, an eminent Surgeon in London, with whom I
continued four Years; and my Father now and then sending me small Sums of Money, I
laid them out in learning Navigation, and other parts of the Mathematicks, useful to those
who intend to travel, as I always believed it would be some time or other my Fortune to
do. When I left Mr. Bates, I went down to my Father; where, by the Assistance of him
and my Uncle John, and some other Relations, I got Forty Pounds, and a Promise of
Thirty Pounds a Year to maintain me at Leyden: There I studied Physick two Years and
seven Months, knowing it would be useful in long Voyages.
Soon after my Return from Leyden, I was recommended, by my good Master Mr. Bates,
to be Surgeon to the Swallow, Captain Abraham Pannell Commander; with whom I
continued three Years and a half, making a Voyage or two into the Levant, and some
other Parts. When I came back, I resolved to settle in London, to which Mr. Bates, my
Master, encouraged me, and by him I was recommended to several Patients. I took Part of
a small House in the Old Jury; and being advised to alter my Condition, I married Mrs.
Mary Burton, second Daughter to Mr. Edmund Burton, Hosier, in Newgate-street, with
whom I received four Hundred Pounds for a Portion.
But, my good Master Bates dying in two Years after, and I having few Friends, my
Business began to fail; for my Conscience would not suffer me to imitate the bad Practice
of too many among my Brethren. Having therefore consulted with my Wife, and some of
my Acquaintance, I determined to go again to Sea. I was Surgeon successively in two
Ships, and made several Voyages, for six Years, to the East and West-Indies, by which I
got some Addition to my Fortune. My Hours of Leisure I spent in reading the best
Authors, antient and modern, being always provided with a good Number of Books ; and
when I was ashore, in observing the Manners and Dispositions of the People, well as
learning their Language, wherein I had a great Facility by the Strength of my Memory.
The last of these Voyages not proving very fortunate, I grew weary of the Sea, and
intended to stay at home with my Wife and Family. I removed from the Old Jury to
Fetter-Lane, and from thence to Wapping hoping to get business among the sailors; but it
would not turn to account. After three Years Expectation that things would mend, I
accepted an advantageous Offer from Captain William Prichard, Master of the Antelope,
who was making a Voyage to the South-Sea. We set sail from Bristol May 4th, 1699 and
our Voyage at first was very prosperous.
It would not be proper, for some Reasons, to trouble the Reader with the Particulars of
our Adventures in those Seas: Let it suffice to inform him, that in our Passage from
thence to the East-Indies, we were driven by a violent Storm to the North-west of Van
Diemen's Land. By an Observation, we found ourselves in the Latitude of 30 Degrees 2
Minutes South. Twelve of our Crew were dead by immoderate Labour and ill Food, the
rest were in a very weak Condition. On the fifth of November, which was the beginning
of Summer in those Parts, the Weather being very hazy, the Seamen spied a Rock, within
half a Cable's length of the Ship; but the Wind was so strong, that we were driven directly
upon it, and immediately split. Six of the Crew, of whom I was one, having let down the
Boat into the Sea, made a Shift to get clear of the Ship, and the Rock. We rowed by my
Computation about three Leagues, till we were able to work no longer, being already
spent with Labour while we were in the Ship. We therefore trusted ourselves to the
Mercy of the Waves, and in about half an Hour the Boat was overset by a sudden Flurry
from the North. What became of my Companions in the Boat, as well as of those who
escaped on the Rock, or were left in the Vessel, I cannot tell; but conclude they were all
lost. For my own Part, I swam as Fortune directed me, and was pushed forward by Wind
and Tide. I often let my Legs drop, and could feel no Bottom: but when I was almost
gone, and able to struggle no longer, I found myself within my Depth; and by this Time
the Storm was much abated. The Declivity was so small, that I walked near a Mile before
I got to the Shore, which I conjectur'd was about eight a-clock in the Evening. I then
advanced forward near half a Mile, but could not discover any sign of Houses or
Inhabitants; at least I was in so weak a Condition, that I did not observe them. I was
extremely tired, and with that, and the Heat of the Weather, and about half a Pint of
Brandy that I drank as I left the Ship, I found myself much inclined to sleep. I lay down
on the Grass, which was very short and soft, where I slept sounder than ever I remember
to have done in my Life, and, as I reckoned, above Nine Hours; for when I awakened, it
was just Day-light. I attempted to rise, but was not able to stir: For as I happen'd to lye on
my Back, I found my Arms and Legs were strongly fastened on each Side to the Ground;
and my Hair, which was long and thick, tied down in the same Manner. I likewise felt
several slender Ligatures across my Body, from my Armpits to my Thighs. I could only
look upwards; the Sun began to grow hot, and the Light offended my Eyes. I heard a
confused Noise about me, but in the Posture I lay, could see nothing except the Sky. In a
little time I felt something alive moving on my left Leg, which advancing gently forward
over my Breast, came almost up to my Chin; when bending my Eyes downwards as much
as I could, I perceived it to be a human Creature not six Inches high, with a Bow and
Arrow in his hands, and a Quiver at his Back. In the meantime, I felt at least Forty more
of the same Kind (as I conjectured) following the first. I was in the utmost Astonishment,
and roared so loud, that they all ran back in a Fright; and some of them, as I was
afterwards told, were hurt with the Falls they got by leaping from my Sides upon the
Ground. However, they soon returned, and one of them, who ventured so far as to get a
full Sight of my Face, lifting up his Hands and Eyes by way of Admiration, cried out in a
shrill but distinct Voice, Hekinah Degul: the others repeated the same Words several
times, but I then knew not what they meant. I lay all this while, as the Reader may
believe, in great Uneasiness; At length, struggling to get loose, I had the Fortune to break
the Strings, and wrench out the Pegs that fastened my left Arm to the Ground; for, by
lifting it up to my Face, I discovered the Methods they had taken to bind me, and at the
same time, with a violent Pull, which gave me excessive Pain, I a little loosened the
Strings that tied down my Hair on the left Side, so that I was just able to turn my Head
about two Inches. But the creatures ran off a second time, before I could seize them;
Whereupon there was a great Shout in a very shrill Accent, and after it ceased, I heard
one of them cry aloud, Tolgo Phonac; when in an Instant I felt above a Hundred Arrows
discharged on my left Hand, which pricked me like so many Needles; and besides they
shot another Flight into the Air, as we do Bombs in Europe, whereof many, I suppose,
fell on my Body (though I felt them not) and some on my Face, which I immediately
covered with my left Hand. When this Shower of Arrows was over, I fell a groaning with
Grief and Pain, and then striving again to get loose, they discharged another Volly larger
than the first, and some of them attempted with Spears to stick me in the Sides; but, by
good Luck, I had on me a Buff Jerkin, which they could not pierce. I thought it the most
prudent Method to lie still, and my Design was to continue so till Night, when, my left
Hand being already loose, I could easily free myself: And as for the Inhabitants, I had
Reason to believe I might be a Match for the greatest Armies they could bring against
me, if they were all of the same Size with him that I saw. But Fortune disposed otherwise
of me. When the People observed I was quiet, they discharged no more Arrows: But, by
the Noise increasing, I knew their Numbers were greater; and about four Yards from me,
over against my right Ear, I heard a Knocking for above an Hour, like People at work;
when turning my Head that Way, as well as the Pegs and Strings would permit me, I saw
a Stage erected about a Foot and a half from the Ground, capable of holding four of the
Inhabitants, with two or three Ladders to mount it: From whence one of them, who
seemed to be a Person of Quality, made me a long Speech, whereof I understood not one
Syllable. But I should have mentioned, that before the principal Person began his Oration,
he cryed out three times, Langro Dehul san: (these Words and the former were
afterwards repeated and explained to me). Whereupon immediately about fifty of the
Inhabitants came, and cut the Strings that fastened the left side of my Head, which gave
me the Liberty of turning it to the right, and of observing the Person and Gesture of him
that was to speak. He appeared to be of a middle age, and taller than any of the other
three who attended him, whereof one was a Page that held up his Train, and seemed to be
somewhat longer than my middle Finger; the other two stood one on each side to support
him. He acted every part of an Orator, and I could observe many periods of Threatnings,
and others of Promises, Pity and Kindness. I answered in a few Words, but in the most
submissive Manner, lifting up my left Hand and both my eyes to the Sun, as calling him
for a Witness; and being almost famished with Hunger, having not eaten a Morsel for
some Hours before I left the Ship, I found the Demands of Nature so strong upon me, that
I could not forbear showing my Impatience (perhaps against the strict Rules of Decency)
by putting my Finger frequently on my Mouth, to signify that I wanted Food. The Hurgo
(for so they call a great Lord, as I afterwards learned) understood me very well: He
descended from the Stage, and commanded that several Ladders should be applied to my
Sides, on which above a Hundred of the Inhabitants mounted, and walked towards my
Mouth, laden with Baskets full of Meat, which had been provided, and sent thither by the
King's Orders, upon the first Intelligence he received of me. I observed there was the
Flesh of several Animals, but could not distinguish them by the Taste. There were
Shoulders, Legs, and Loins, shaped like those of Mutton, and very well dressed, but
smaller than the Wings of a Lark. I eat them by two or three at a Mouthful, and took three
Loaves at a time, about the bigness of Musket Bullets. They supplied me as fast as they
could, shewing a thousand Marks of Wonder and Astonishment at my Bulk and Appetite.
I then made another Sign that I wanted Drink. They found by my eating that a small
Quantity would not suffice me, and being a most ingenious People, they slung up with
great Dexterity one of their largest Hogsheads, then rolled it toward my Hand, and beat
out the Top; I drank it off at a Draught, which I might well do, for it hardly held half a
Pint, and tasted like a small Wine of Burgundy, but much more delicious. They brought
me a second Hogshead, which I drank in the same Manner, and made Signs for more, but
they had none to give me. When I had performed these Wonders, they shouted for Joy,
and danced upon my Breast, repeating several times as they did at first, Hekinah Degul.
They made me a Sign that I should throw down the two Hogsheads, but first warning the
People below to stand out of the Way, crying aloud, Borach Mivola, and when they saw
the Vessels in the Air, there was a universal Shout of Hekinah Degul. I confess I was
often tempted, while they were passing backwards and forwards on my Body, to seize
Forty or Fifty of the first that came in my Reach, and dash them against the Ground. But
the Remembrance of what I had felt, which probably might not be the worst they could
do; and the Promise of Honour I made them, for so I interpreted my submissive
Behaviour, soon drove out these Imaginations. Besides, I now considered myself as
bound by the Laws of Hospitality to a People who had treated me with so much Expense
and Magnificence. However, in my Thoughts I could not sufficiently wonder at the
Intrepidity of these diminutive Mortals, who dare venture to mount and walk upon my
Body, while one of my Hands was at Liberty, without trembling at the very Sight of so
prodigious a Creature as I must appear to them. After some time, when they observed that
I made no more Demands for Meat, there appeared before me a Person of high Rank
from his Imperial Majesty. His Excellency having mounted on the small of my right Leg,
advanced forwards up to my Face, with about a Dozen of his Retinue; And producing his
Credentials under the Signet Royal, which he applied close to my Eyes, spoke about ten
Minutes, without any Signs of Anger, but with a kind of determinate Resolution; often
pointing forwards, which, as I afterwards found, was towards the Capital City, about half
a Mile distant, whither it was agreed by his Majesty in Council that I must be conveyed. I
answered in few Words, but to no Purpose, and made a Sign with my Hand that was
loose, putting it to the other (but over his Excellency's Head, for fear of hurting him or his
Train) and then to my own Head and Body, to signify that I desired my Liberty. It
appeared that he understood me well enough, for he shook his Head by way of
Disapprobation , and held his Hand in a Posture to show that I must be carried as a
Prisoner. However, he made other Signs to let me understand that I should have Meat and
Drink enough, and very good Treatment. Whereupon I once more thought of attempting
to break my Bonds, but again, when I felt the Smart of their Arrows upon my Face and
Hands, which were all in Blisters, and many of the Darts still sticking in them, and
observing likewise that the Number of my Enemies encreased, I gave Tokens to let them
know that they might do with me what they pleased. Upon this the Hurgo and his Train
withdrew with much Civility and chearful Countenances. Soon after I heard a general
Shout, with frequent repetitions of the words, Peplom Selan, and I felt great Numbers of
the People on my Left Side relaxing the Cords to such a Degree, that I was able to turn
upon my Right, and to ease myself with making Water; which I very plentifully did, to
the great Astonishment of the People, who conjecturing by my Motions what I was going
to do, immediately opened to the right and left on that Side, to avoid the Torrent which
fell with such Noise and Violence from me. But before this, they had daubed my Face
and both my Hands with a sort of Ointment very pleasant to the Smell, which in a few
Minutes removed all the Smart of their Arrows. These Circumstances, added to the
Refreshment I had received by their Victuals and Drink, which were very nourishing ,
disposed me to sleep. I slept about eight Hours, as I was afterwards assured; and it was no
Wonder, for the Physicians, by the Emperor's Order, had mingled a sleeping Potion in the
Hogsheads of Wine.
It seems that upon the first Moment I was discovered sleeping on the Ground after my
Landing, the Emperor had early Notice of it by an Express, and determined in Council
that I should be tyed in the Manner I have related (which was done in the Night while I
slept), that plenty of Meat and Drink should be sent me, and a Machine prepared to carry
me to the Capital City.
This Resolution perhaps may appear very bold and dangerous, and I am confident would
not be imitated by any Prince in Europe on the like Occasion; however, in my Opinion, it
was extremely Prudent, as well as Generous. For supposing these People had
endeavoured to kill me with their Spears and Arrows while I was asleep, I should
certainly have awakened with the first Sense of Smart, which might so far have roused
my Rage and Strength, as to have enabled me to break the Strings wherewith I was tyed;
after which, as they were not able to make Resistance, so they could expect no Mercy.
These People are most excellent Mathematicians, and arrived to great perfection in
Mechanicks by the Countenance and Encouragement of the Emperor, who is a renowned
Patron of Learning. This Prince has several Machines fixed on Wheels for the Carriage of
Trees and other great Weights. He often builds his largest Men of War, whereof some are
Nine Foot long, in the Woods where the Timber grows, and has them carried on these
Engines three or four Hundred Yards to the sea. Five Hundred Carpenters and Engineers
were immediately set at work to prepare the greatest Engine they had. It was a Frame of
Wood raised three Inches from the Ground, about seven Foot long and four wide, moving
upon twenty-two Wheels. The Shout I heard was upon the Arrival of this Engine, which
it seems set out in four Hours after my Landing. It was brought parallel to me as I lay.
But the principal Difficulty was to raise and place me in this Vehicle. Eighty Poles, each
of one Foot high, were erected for this Purpose, and very strong Cords of the bigness of
Pack thread were fastened by Hooks to many Bandages, which the Workmen had girt
round my Neck, my Hands, my Body, and my Legs. Nine Hundred of the strongest Men
were employed to draw up these Cords by many Pulleys fastned on the Poles, and thus, in
less than three Hours, I was raised and slung into the Engine, and there tyed fast. All this
I was told, for while the whole Operation was performing, I lay in a profound Sleep, by
the Force of that soporiferous Medicine infused into my Liquor. Fifteen Hundred of the
Emperor's largest Horses, each about four Inches and a half high, were employed to draw
me towards the Metropolis, which, as I said, was half a Mile distant.
About four Hours after we began our Journey, I awaked by a very ridiculous Accident;
for the Carriage being stopt a while to adjust something that was out of Order, two or
three of the young Natives had the Curiosity to see how I looked when I was asleep; they
climbed up into the Engine, and advancing very softly to my Face, one of them, an
Officer in the Guards, put the sharp End of his Half-Pike a good way up into my left
Nostril, which tickled my Nose like a Straw, and made me sneeze violently: Whereupon
they stole off unperceived, and it was three Weeks before I knew the Cause of my
awaking so suddenly. We made a long March the remaining Part of that Day, and rested
at Night with Five Hundred Guards on each Side of me, half with Torches, and half with
Bows and Arrows, ready to shoot me if I should offer to stir. The next Morning at Sunrise
we continued our March, and arrived within two Hundred Yards of the City-Gates about
Noon. The Emperor, and all his Court, came out to meet us; but his great Officers would
by no means suffer his Majesty to endanger his Person by mounting on my Body.
At the Place where the Carriage stopt, there stood an antient Temple, esteemed to be the
largest in the whole Kingdom, which having been polluted some Years before by an
unnatural Murder, was, according to the Zeal of those People, looked on as prophane, and
therefore had been applied to common Use, and all the Ornaments and Furniture carried
away. In this Edifice it was determined I should lodge. The great Gate fronting to the
North was about four feet high, and almost two feet wide, through which I could easily
creep. On each Side of the Gate was a small Window not above six Inches from the
Ground: Into that on the Left Side, the King's Smiths conveyed fourscore and eleven
Chains, like those that hang to a Lady's Watch in Europe, and almost as large, which
were locked to my Left Leg with six and thirty Padlocks. Over against this Temple, on
the other Side of the great highway, at twenty Foot Distance, there was a Turret at least
Five Foot high. Here the Emperor ascended with many principal Lords of his Court, to
have an opportunity of viewing me, as I was told, for I could not see them. It was
reckoned that above a hundred thousand Inhabitants came out of the Town upon the same
Errand; and in spite of my Guards, I believe there could not be fewer than ten thousand,
at several Times, who mounted upon my Body by the Help of Ladders. But a
Proclamation was soon issued to forbid it upon Pain of Death. When the Workmen found
it was impossible for me to break loose, they cut all the Strings that bound me;
whereupon I rose up with as melancholy a Disposition as ever I had in my Life. But the
Noise and Astonishment of the People at seeing me rise and walk, are not to be
expressed. The Chains that held my left Leg were about two Yards long, and gave me not
only the Liberty of walking backwards and forwards in a Semicircle; but, being fixed
within four Inches of the Gate, allowed me to creep in, and lie at my full Length in the
Temple.
CHAPTER II.
The Emperor of Lilliput, attended by several of the Nobility, comes to see the Author
in his Confinement. The Emperor's Person and Habit describ'd. Learned Men
appointed to teach the Author their Language. He gains Favour by his mild
Disposition. His Pockets Are searched, and his Sword and Pistols taken from him.
WHEN I found myself on my Feet, I looked about me, and must confess I never beheld a
more entertaining Prospect. The Country round appeared like a continued Garden, and
the inclosed Fields, which were generally Forty Foot square, resembled so many Beds of
Flowers. These Fields were intermingled with Woods of half a Stang, and the tallest
Trees, as I could judge, appeared to be seven Foot high. I viewed the Town on my left
Hand, which looked like the painted Scene of a City in a Theatre.
I had been for some Hours extremely pressed by the Necessities of Nature; which was no
Wonder, it being almost two Days since I had last disburthened myself. I was under great
Difficulties between Urgency and Shame. The best Expedient I could think on, was to
creep into my House, which I accordingly did; and shutting the Gate after me, I went as
far as the Length of my Chain would suffer, and discharged my Body of that uneasy
Load. But this was the only Time I was ever guilty of so uncleanly an Action; for which I
cannot but hope the candid Reader will give some Allowance, after he has maturely and
impartially considered my Case, and the Distress I was in. From this Time my constant
Practice was, as soon as I rose, to perform that Business in open Air, at the full Extent of
my Chain, and due Care was taken every Morning before Company came, that the
offensive Matter should be carried off in Wheel-barrows, by two Servants appointed for
that Purpose. I would not have dwelt so long upon a Circumstance, that perhaps at first
sight may appear not very momentous, if I had not thought it necessary to justify my
Character in point of Cleanliness to the world; which I am told some of my Maligners
have been pleased, upon this and other Occasions, to call in question.
When this Adventure was at an end, I came back out of my House, having occasion for
fresh Air. The Emperor was already descended from the Tower, and advancing on Horseback towards me, which had like to have cost him dear; for the Beast, though very well
trained, yet wholly unused to such a Sight, which appeared as if a Mountain moved
before him, he reared up on his hinder Feet: But that Prince, who is an excellent Horseman, kept his Seat, till his Attendants ran in, and held the Bridle, while his Majesty had
time to dismount. When he alighted, he surveyed me round with great Admiration, but
kept without the length of my Chain. He ordered his Cooks and Butlers, who were
already prepared, to give me Victuals and Drink, which they pushed forward in a sort of
Vehicles upon Wheels till I could reach them. I took these Vehicles, and soon emptied
them all; twenty of them were filled with Meat, and ten with Liquor; each of the former
afforded me two or three good Mouthfuls, and I emptied the Liquor of ten Vessels, which
was contained in earthen Vials, into one Vehicle, drinking it off at a Draught; and so I did
with the rest. The Empress, and young Princes of the Blood, of both Sexes, attended by
many Ladies, sat at some distance in their Chairs; but upon the Accident that happened to
the Emperor's Horse, they alighted, and came near his Person, which I am now going to
describe. He is taller by almost the breadth of my Nail, than any of his Court, which alone
is enough to strike an Awe into the Beholders. His Features are strong and masculine,
with an Austrian lip and arched Nose, his Complexion olive, his Countenance erect, his
Body and Limbs well proportioned, all his motions graceful, and his Deportment
majestic. He was then past his Prime, being twenty-eight Years and three Quarters old, of
which he had reigned about seven, in great Felicity, and generally victorious. For the
better convenience of beholding him, I lay on my Side, so that my Face was parallel to
his, and he stood but three Yards off: However, I have had him since many Times in my
Hand, and therefore cannot be deceived in the Description. His Dress was very plain and
simple, and the Fashion of it between the Asiatick and the European; but he had on his
Head a light Helmet of Gold, adorned with Jewels, and a Plume on the Crest. He held his
Sword drawn in his Hand, to defend himself, if I should happen to break loose; it was
almost three Inches long, the Hilt and Scabbard were Gold, enriched with Diamonds. His
Voice was shrill, but very clear and articulate, and I could distinctly hear it when I stood
up. The Ladies and Courtiers were all most magnificently clad, so that the Spot they
stood upon seemed to resemble a Petticoat spread on the Ground, embroidered with
Figures of Gold and Silver. His Imperial Majesty spoke often to me, and I returned
Answers, but neither of us could understand a Syllable. There were several of his Priests
and Lawyers present (as I conjectured by their Habits) who were commanded to address
themselves to me, and I spoke to them in as many Languages as I had the least smattering
of, which were High and Low Dutch, Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, and Lingua Franca ;
but all to no Purpose. After about two Hours the Court retired, and I was left with a
strong Guard, to prevent the Impertinence, and probably the Malice of the Rabble, who
were very impatient to croud about me as near as they durst, and some of them had the
impudence to shoot their Arrows at me as I sate on the Ground by the Door of my House,
whereof one very narrowly missed my left Eye. But the Colonel ordered six of the
Ringleaders to be seized, and thought no Punishment so proper as to deliver them bound
into my Hands, which some of his Soldiers accordingly did, pushing them forwards with
the But-Ends of their Pikes into my Reach; I took them all in my right Hand, put five of
them into my Coat-Pocket, and as to the sixth, I made a Countenance as if I would eat
him alive. The poor Man squalled terribly, and the Colonel and his Officers were in much
Pain, especially when they saw me take out my Penknife: But I soon put them out of fear;
for, looking mildly and immediately cutting the Strings he was bound with, I set him
gently on the Ground, and away he ran; I treated the rest in the same manner, taking them
one by one out of my Pocket, and I observed both the Soldiers and People were highly
obliged at this Mark of my Clemency, which was represented very much to my
Advantage at Court.
Towards Night I with some Difficulty got into my House, where I lay on the Ground, and
continued to do so about a Fortnight; during which Time the Emperor gave Orders to
have a Bed prepared for me. Six hundred Beds of the common Measure were brought in
Carriages, and worked up in my House; a hundred and fifty of their Beds sewn together
made up the Breadth and Length, and these were four double, which however kept me
but very indifferently from the Hardness of the Floor, that was of smooth Stone. By the
same Computation they provided me with Sheets, Blankets, and Coverlets, tolerable
enough for one who had been so long enured to Hardships as I.
As the News of my Arrival spread through the Kingdom, it brought prodigious Numbers
of rich, idle, and curious People to see me; so that the Villages were almost emptied, and
great Neglect of Tillage and Household Affairs must have ensued, if his Imperial Majesty
had not provided, by several Proclamations and Orders of State, against this
Inconveniency. He directed that those who had already beheld me should return Home,
and not presume to come within fifty Yards of my House without Licence from Court;
whereby the Secretarys of State got considerable Fees.
In the mean time, the Emperor held frequent Councils to debate what Course should be
taken with me; and I was afterwards assured by a particular Friend, a Person of great
Quality, who was looked upon to be as much in the Secret as any, that the Court was
under many Difficulties concerning me. They apprehended my breaking loose, that my
Diet would be very expensive, and might cause a Famine. Sometimes they determined to
starve me, or at least to shoot me in the Face and Hands with poisoned Arrows, which
would soon dispatch me: But again they considered, that the Stench of so large a Carcass
might produce a Plague in the Metropolis, and probably spread through the whole
Kingdom. In the midst of these Consultations, several Officers of the army went to the
Door of the great Council Chamber; and two of them being admitted, gave an account of
my Behavior to the six Criminals above-mentioned, which made so favourable an
Impression in the Breast of his Majesty and the whole Board in my behalf, that an
Imperial Commission was issued out, obliging all the Villages nine hundred Yards round
the City, to deliver in every Morning six Beeves, forty Sheep, and other Victuals for my
Sustenance; together with a proportionable Quantity of Bread, and Wine, and other
Liquors: for the due Payment of which, his Majesty gave assignments upon his Treasury.
For this Prince lives chiefly upon his own Demesnes, seldom, except upon great
Occasions, raising any Subsidies upon his Subjects, who are bound to attend him in his
Wars at their own Expense. An Establishment was also made of six hundred Persons to
be my Domesticks, who had Board-Wages allowed for their Maintenance, and Tents built
for them very conveniently on each side of my Door. It was likewise ordered, that three
hundred Taylors should make me a Suit of Cloaths after the Fashion of the Country: That
six of his Majesty's greatest Scholars should be employ'd to instruct me in their
Language: And, lastly, that the Emperor's Horses, and those of the Nobility, and Troops
of Guards, should be frequently exercised in my sight, to accustom themselves to me. All
these Orders were duly put in Execution, and in about three Weeks I made a great
progress in learning their Language; during which time, the Emperor frequently honored
me with his Visits, and was pleased to assist my Masters in teaching me. We began
already to converse together in some sort; and the first Words I learnt were to express my
Desire that he would please give me my Liberty, which I every day repeated on my
Knees. His Answer, as I could apprehend it, was, that this must be a Work of Time, not to
be thought on without the Advice of Council, and that first I must Lumos Kelmin pesso
desmar lon Emposo; that is, swear a Peace with him and his Kingdom. However, that I
should be used with all Kindness; and he advised me to acquire, by my Patience and
discreet Behaviour, the good Opinion of himself and his Subjects. He desired I would not
take it ill, if he gave Orders to certain proper Officers to search me; for probably I might
carry about me several Weapons, which must needs be dangerous things, if they
answered the Bulk of so prodigious a Person. I said, his Majesty should be satisfied, for I
was ready to strip myself, and turn out my Pockets before him. This I delivered part in
Words, and part in Signs. He replied, that by the Laws of the Kingdom I must be
searched by two of his Officers; that he knew this could not be done without my Consent
and Assistance; that he had so good an Opinion of my Generosity and Justice, as to trust
their Persons in my Hands: That whatever they took from me should be returned when I
left the Country, or paid for at the Rate which I would set upon them. I took up the two
Officers in my Hands, put them first into my Coat-Pockets, and then into every other
Pocket about me, except my two Fobs, and another secret Pocket I had no mind should be
searched, wherein I had some little Necessaries that were of no consequence to any but
myself. In one of my Fobs there was a silver Watch, and in the other a small Quantity of
Gold in a Purse. These Gentlemen, having Pen Ink, and Paper about them, made an exact
Inventory of everything they saw; and when they had done, desired I would set them
down, that they might deliver it to the Emperor. This Inventory I afterwards translated
into English, and is word for word as follows.
IMPRIMIS, In the right coat Pocket of the Great Man Mountain (for so I interpret the
Words Quinbus Flestrin) after the strictest search, we found only one great Piece of
coarse Cloath, large enough to be a Foot-Cloth for your Majesty's chief Room of State. In
the left Pocket we saw a huge Silver Chest, with a Cover of the same Metal, which we the
Searchers were not able to lift. We desired it should be opened, and one of us stepping
into it, found himself up to the mid Leg in a sort of Dust, some part whereof flying up to
our Faces, set us both sneezing for several times together. In his right Waistcoat-Pocket
we found a prodigious Bundle of white thin Substances, folded one over another, about
the Bigness of three Men, tied with a strong cable, and marked with black Figures; which
we humbly conceive to be Writings, every Letter almost half as large as the Palm of our
Hands. In the left there was a sort of Engine, from the back of which were extended
twenty long poles, resembling the palisades before your Majesty's Court; wherewith we
conjecture the Man Mountain combs his Head, for we did not always trouble him with
Questions, because we found it a great Difficulty to make him understand us. In the large
Pocket on the right side of his middle Cover (so I translate the Word Ranfu-Lo, by which
they meant my Breeches) we saw a hollow Pillar of Iron, about the length of a Man,
fastened to a strong piece of Timber, larger than the Pillar; and upon one side of the Pillar
were huge Pieces of Iron sticking out, cut into strange Figures, which we know not what
to make of. In the left Pocket, another Engine of the same kind. In the smaller Pocket on
the right side, were several round flat Pieces of white and red Metal, of different Bulk;
some of the white, which seemed to be silver, were so large and heavy, that my Comrade
and I could hardly lift them. In the left Pocket were two black Pillars irregularly shaped:
we could not, without Difficulty, reach the Top of them as we stood at the Bottom of his
Pocket. One of them was covered, and seemed all of a Piece: but at the upper End of the
other, there appeared a white round Substance, about twice the bigness of our heads.
Within each of these was inclosed a prodigious Plate of Steel; which, by our Orders, we
obliged him to shew us, because we apprehended they might be dangerous Engines. He
took them out of their Cases, and told us, that in his own Country his Practice was to
shave his Beard with one of these, and to cut his Meat with the other. There were two
Pockets which we could not enter: These he called his Fobs; they were two large Slits cut
into the top of his middle Cover, but squeez'd close by the pressure of his Belly. Out of
the right Fob hung a great silver Chain, with a wonderful kind of Engine at the bottom.
We directed him to draw out whatever was fastened to that Chain; which appeared to be a
Globe, half Silver, and half of some transparent Metal: for on the transparent side we saw
certain strange Figures circularly drawn, and thought we could touch them, till we found
our Fingers stopped by that lucid Substance. He put this Engine to our Ears, which made
an incessant Noise like that of a Water-Mill. And we conjecture it is either some unknown
Animal, or the God that he worships: But we are more inclined to the latter Opinion,
because he assured us (if we understood him right, for he expressed himself very
imperfectly) that he seldom did anything without consulting it: he called it his Oracle, and
said it pointed out the Time for every Action of his Life. From the left Fob he took out a
Net almost large enough for a Fisherman, but contrived to open and shut like a Purse, and
serve him for the same use: we found therein several massy Pieces of yellow Metal,
which, if they be real Gold, must be of immense Value.
Having thus, in obedience to your Majesty's Commands, diligently searched all his
Pockets, we observed a Girdle about his Waist made of the Hide of some prodigious
Animal; from which, on the left side, hung a Sword of the length of five Men; and on the
right, a Bag or Pouch divided into two Cells, each Cell capable of holding three of your
Majesty's Subjects. In one of these Cells were several Globes or Balls of a most
ponderous Metal, about the bigness of our Heads, and requiring a strong Hand to lift
them: the other Cell contained a Heap of certain black Grains, but of no great Bulk or
Weight, for we could hold above fifty of them in the Palms of our Hands.
This is an exact Inventory of what we found about the Body of the Man-Mountain, who
used us with great Civility, and due Respect to your Majesty's Commission.
Signed and Sealed on the fourth Day of the eighty ninth Moon of your Majesty's
auspicious Reign.
Clefren Frelock, Marsi Frelock.
When this Inventory was read over to the Emperor, he directed me, although in very
gentle Terms, to deliver up the several Particulars. He first called for my Scymiter, which
I took out, Scabbard and all. In the meantime he ordered three thousand of his choicest
Troops (who then attended him) to surround me at a distance, with their Bows and
Arrows just ready to discharge: but I did not observe it, for mine Eyes were wholly fixed
upon his Majesty. He then desired me to draw my Scymiter, which, although it had got
some Rust by the Sea-Water, was in most parts exceeding bright. I did so, and
immediately all the Troops gave a Shout between Terror and Surprise; for the Sun shone
clear, and the Reflection dazzled their Eyes as I waved the Scymiter to and fro in my
Hand. His Majesty, who is a most magnanimous Prince, was less danted than I could
expect; he ordered me to return it into the Scabbard, and cast it on the Ground as gently as
I could, about six Foot from the end of my Chain. The next thing he demanded was one of
the hollow iron pillars, by which he meant my Pocket-Pistols. I drew it out, and at his
desire, as well as I could, expressed to him the Use of it; and charging it only with
Powder, which by the closeness of my Pouch happened to escape wetting in the Sea (an
Inconvenience against which all prudent mariners take special Care to provide) I first
cautioned the Emperor not to be afraid, and then I let it off in the Air. The Astonishment
here was much greater than at the sight of my Scymiter. Hundreds fell down as if they had
been struck dead; and even the Emperor, although he stood his ground, could not recover
himself in some time. I delivered up both my Pistols in the same Manner as I had done
my Scymiter, and then my Pouch of Powder and Bullets; begging him that the former
might be kept from the Fire, for it would kindle with the smallest Spark, and blow up his
Imperial Palace into the Air. I likewise delivered up my Watch, which the Emperor was
very curious to see, and commanded two of his tallest Yeomen of the Guards to bear it on
a Pole upon their shoulders, as Draymen in England do a Barrel of Ale. He was amazed at
the continual Noise it made, and the Motion of the Minute-Hand, which he could easily
discern; for their Sight is much more acute than ours; and asked the Opinions of his
learned Men about him, which were various and remote, as the Reader may well imagine
without my repeating; although indeed I could not very perfectly understand them. I then
gave up my Silver and Copper money, my Purse with nine large Pieces of Gold, and some
smaller ones; my Knife and Razor, my Comb and Silver Snuff-Box, my Handkerchief and
Journal Book. My Scymiter, Pistols, and Pouch, were conveyed in Carriages to his
Majesty's Stores; but the rest of my Goods were returned me.
I had, as I before observed, one private Pocket which escaped their Search, wherein there
was a pair of Spectacles (which I sometimes use for the weakness of mine Eyes), a Pocket
Perspective, and several other little Conveniences; which, being of no consequence to the
Emperor, I did not think myself bound in Honour to discover, and I apprehended they
might be lost or spoiled if I ventured them out of my Possession.
CHAPTER III.
The Author diverts the Emperor and his Nobility of both Sexes in a very uncommon
Manner. The Diversions of the Court of Lilliput described. The Author has his Liberty
granted him upon certain Conditions.
MY GENTLENESS and good Behaviour had gained so far on the Emperor and his
Court, and indeed upon the Army and People in general, that I began to conceive Hopes
of getting my Liberty in a short time. I took all possible Methods to cultivate this
favourable Disposition. The Natives came by degrees to be less apprehensive of any
Danger from me. I would sometimes lie down, and let five or six of them dance on my
Hand. And last the Boys and Girls would venture to come and play at Hide and Seek in
my Hair. I had now made good Progress in understanding and speaking their Language.
The Emperor had a mind one day to entertain me with several of the Country Shows,
wherein they exceeded all Nations I have known, both for Dexterity and Magnificence. I
was diverted with none so much as that of the Rope-Dancers, performed upon a slender
white Thread, extended about two Foot and twelve Inches from the Ground. Upon which
I shall desire liberty, with the Reader's Patience, to enlarge a little.
This Diversion is only practiced by those Persons who are Candidates for great
Employments, and high Favour, at Court. They are trained in this Art from their Youth,
and are not always of noble Birth, or liberal Education. When a great Office is vacant
either by Death or disgrace (which often happens) five or six of those Candidates petition
the Emperor to entertain his Majesty and the Court with a Dance on the Rope, and
whoever jumps the highest without falling, succeeds in the Office. Very often the Chief
Ministers themselves are commanded to show their Skill, and to convince the Emperor
that they have not lost their Faculty. Flimnap, the Treasurer, is allowed to cut a Caper on
the strait Rope, at least an Inch higher than any other Lord in the whole Empire. I have
seen him do the Summerset several times together upon a Trencher fixed on the Rope,
which is no thicker than a common packthread in England. My friend Reldresal,
principal Secretary for private Affairs, is, in my Opinion, if I am not partial, the second
after the Treasurer; the rest of the great Officers are much upon a par.
These Diversions are often attended with fatal Accidents, whereof great Numbers are on
Record. I my self have seen two or three Candidates break a Limb. But the Danger is
much greater when the Ministers themselves are commanded to shew their Dexterity; for
by contending to excel themselves and their Fellows, they strain so far, that there is
hardly one of them who has not received a Fall, and some of them two or three. I was
assured that a Year or two before my Arrival, Flimnap would have infallibly broken his
Neck, if one of the King's Cushions, that accidentally lay on the Ground, had not
weakened the Force of his Fall.
There is likewise another Diversion, which is only shewn before the Emperor and
Empress, and first Minister, upon particular Occasions. The Emperor lays on the Table
three fine silken Threads of six Inches long. One is Blue, the other Red, and the third
Green *. These Threads are proposed as Prizes for those Persons whom the Emperor has
a mind to distinguish by a peculiar Mark of his Favor. The Ceremony is performed in his
Majesty's great Chamber of State, where the Candidates are to undergo a Tryal of
Dexterity very different from the former, and such as I have not observed the least
Resemblance of in any other Country of the old or the new World. The Emperor holds a
Stick in his Hands, both ends parallel to the Horizon, while the Candidates, advancing
one by one, sometimes leap over the Stick, sometimes creep under it backwards and
forwards several times, according as the Stick is advanced or depressed. Sometimes the
Emperor holds one end of the Stick, and his first Minister the other; sometimes the
Minister has it entirely to himself. Whoever performs his Part with most Agility, and
holds out the longest in leaping and creeping, is rewarded with the Blue-colored Silk; the
Red is given to the next, and the Green to the third, which they all wear girt twice round
about the middle; and you see few great Persons about this Court who are not adorned
with one of these Girdles.
The Horses of the Army, and those of the royal Stables, having been daily led before me,
were no longer shy, but would come up to my very Feet without starting. The Riders
would leap them over my Hand as I held it on the Ground, and one of the Emperor's
Huntsmen, upon a large Courser, took my Foot, Shoe and all; which was indeed a
prodigious Leap. I had the good fortune to divert the Emperor one Day after a very
extraordinary manner. I desired he would order several Sticks of two Foot high, and the
thickness of an ordinary cane, to be brought me; whereupon his Majesty commanded the
Master of his Woods to give Directions accordingly; and the next Morning six Woodmen arrived with as many Carriages, drawn by eight Horses to each. I took nine of these
Sticks, and fixing them firmly in the Ground in a Quadrangular Figure, two Foot and a
half Square, I took four other Sticks, and tied them parallel at each Corner, about two feet
from the Ground; then I fastened my Handkerchief to the nine Sticks that stood erect, and
extended it on all Sides till it was as tight as the top of a Drum; and the four parallel
Sticks rising about five Inches higher than the Handkerchief served as Ledges on each
side. When I had finished my Work, I desired the Emperor to let a Troop of his best
Horse, twenty four in number, come and exercise upon this Plain. His Majesty approved
of the Proposal, and I took them up one by one in my Hands, ready mounted and armed,
with the proper Officers to exercise them. As soon as they got into order, they divided
into two Parties, performed mock Skirmishes, discharged blunt Arrows, drew their
Swords, fled and pursued, attacked and retired, and in short discovered the best Military
Discipline I ever beheld. The parallel Sticks secured them and their Horses from falling
over the Stage; and the Emperor was so much delighted, that he ordered this
Entertainment to be repeated several days, and once was pleased to be lifted up and give
the Word of Command; and, with great difficulty, persuaded even the Empress herself to
let me hold her in her close Chair within two Yards of the Stage, from whence she was
able to take a full View of the whole Performance. It was my good fortune that no ill
Accident happened in these Entertainments, only once a fiery Horse that belonged to one
of the Captains pawing with his Hoof struck a Hole in my Handkerchief, and his Foot
slipping, he overthrew his Rider and himself; but I immediately relieved them both, and
covering the Hole with one Hand, I set down the Troop with the other, in the same
manner as I took them up. The Horse that fell was strained in the left Shoulder, but the
Rider got no hurt, and I repaired my Handkerchief as well as I could: however I would
not trust to the Strength of it any more in such dangerous Enterprizes.
About two or three days before I was set at liberty, as I was entertaining the Court with
these kind of Feats, there arrived an Express to inform his Majesty that some of his
Subjects riding near the Place where I was first taken up, had seen a great black
Substance lying on the Ground, very oddly shaped, extending its Edges round as wide as
his Majesty's Bedchamber, and rising up in the middle as high as a Man; that it was no
living Creature, as they at first apprehended, for it lay on the Grass without Motion, and
some of them had walked round it several tunes: That by mounting upon each other's
Shoulders, they had got to the top, which was flat and even, and stamping upon it they
found it was hollow within; that they humbly conceived it might be something belonging
to the Man-Mountain, and if his Majesty pleased, they would undertake to bring it with
only five Horses. I presently knew what they meant, and was glad at heart to receive this
Intelligence. It seems upon my first reaching the Shore after our Shipwreck, I was in such
confusion, that before I came to the Place where I went to sleep, my Hat, which I had
fastned with a String to my Head while I was rowing, and had stuck on all the time I was
swimming, fell off after I came to Land; the String, as I conjecture, breaking by some
Accident which I never observed, but thought my Hat had been lost at Sea. I entreated his
Imperial Majesty to give Orders it might be brought to me as soon as possible, describing
to him the Use and the Nature of it: And the next Day the Waggoners arrived with it, but
not in a very good condition; they had bored two Holes in the Brim, within an Inch and a
half of the Edge, and fastened two Hooks in the Holes; these Hooks were tyed by a long
Cord to the Harness, and thus my Hat was dragged along for above half an English Mile:
but the Ground in that Country being extremely smooth and level, it receiv'd less Damage
than I expected.
Two Days after this Adventure, the Emperor having ordered that part of his Army which
quarters in and about his Metropolis to be in a readiness, took a fancy of diverting
himself in a very singular manner. He desired I would stand like a Colossus, with my
Legs as far asunder as I conveniently could. He then commanded his General (who was
an old experienced Leader, and a great Patron of mine) to draw up the Troops in close
Order, and march them under me, the Foot by Twenty-four in a Breast, and the Horse by
Sixteen, with Drums beating, Colours flying, and Pikes advanced. This Body consisted of
three thousand Foot, and a thousand Horse. His Majesty gave Orders, upon pain of Death,
that every Soldier in his March should observe the strictest Decency with regard to my
Person; which, however, could not prevent some of the younger Officers from turning up
their Eyes as they passed under me. And, to confess the Truth, my Breeches were at that
time in so ill a Condition, that they afforded some Opportunities for Laughter and
Admiration.
I had sent so many Memorials and Petitions for my Liberty, that his Majesty at length
mentioned the Matter, first in the Cabinet, and then in a full Council ; where it was
opposed by none, except Skyresh Bolgolam, who was pleased, without any Provocation,
to be my mortal Enemy. But it was carried against him by the whole Board, and
confirmed by the Emperor. That Minister was Galbet, or Admiral of the Realm, very
much in his Master's confidence, and a Person well versed in Affairs, but of a morose and
sour Complection. However, he was at length persuaded to comply; but prevailed that the
Articles and Conditions upon which I should be set free, and to which I must swear,
should be drawn up by himself. These Articles were brought to me by Skyresh Bolgolam
in Person, attended by two Under-Secretarys, and several Persons of Distinction. After
they were read, I was demanded to swear to the Performance of them; first in the manner
of my own Country, and afterwards in the method prescribed by their Laws; which was to
hold my right Foot in my left Hand, to place the middle Finger of my right Hand on the
Crown of my Head, and my Thumb on the Tip of my right Ear. But because the Reader
may perhaps be curious to have some Idea of the Style and Manner of Expression
peculiar to that People, as well as to know the Articles upon which I recovered my
Liberty, I have made a Translation of the whole Instrument word for word, as near as I
was able, which I here offer to the Publick.
GOLBASTO MOMAREN EVLAME GURDILO SHEFIN MULLY ULLY GUE, most
Mighty Emperor of Lilliput, Delight and Terror of the Universe, whose Dominions
extend five thousand Blustrugs (about twelve miles in circumference) to the Extremities
of the Globe; Monarch of all Monarchs, taller than the Sons of Men; whose Feet press
down to the Center, and whose Head strikes against the Sun: At whose Nod the Princes
of the Earth shake their Knees; pleasant as the Spring, comfortable as the Summer,
fruitful as Autumn, dreadful as Winter. His most sublime Majesty proposeth to the ManMountain, lately arrived to our Celestial Dominions, the following Articles, which by a
solemn Oath he shall be obliged to perform.
First, The Man-Mountain shall not depart from our Dominions, without our Licence
under our Great Seal.
2nd, He shall not presume to come into our Metropolis, without our express Order; at
which time the Inhabitants shall have two hours warning to keep within their Doors.
3rd, The said Man-Mountain shall confine his Walks to our principal High Roads, and
not offer to walk or lie down in a Meadow or Field of Corn.
4th, As he walks the said Roads, he shall take the utmost care not to trample upon the
Bodies of any of our loving Subjects, their Horses, or Carriages, nor take any of our said
Subjects into his Hands, without their own Consent.
5th, If an Express requires extraordinary Dispatch, the Man-Mountain shall be obliged to
carry in his Pocket the Messenger and Horse a Six Days Journey once in every Moon,
and return the said Messenger back (if so required) safe to our Imperial Presence.
6th, He shall be our Ally against our enemies in the Island of Blefuscu, and do his utmost
to destroy their Fleet, which is now preparing to invade Us.
7th, That the said Man-Mountain shall, at his times of leisure, be aiding and assisting to
our Workmen, in helping to raise certain great Stones, towards covering the Wall of the
principal Park, and other of our Royal Buildings.
8th, That the said Man-Mountain shall, in two Moons time, deliver in an exact Survey of
the Circumference of our Dominions by a Computation of his own Paces round the
Coast.
Lastly, That upon his solemn Oath to observe all the above Articles, the said ManMountain shall have a daily Allowance of Meat and Drink sufficient for the support of
1728 of our Subjects, with free Access to our Royal Person, and other Marks of our
Favour. Given at our Palace at Belfaborac the twelfth Day of the Ninety-first Moon of
our Reign.
I swore and subscribed to these Articles with great Chearfulness and Content, although
some of them were not so honorable as I could have wished; which proceeded wholly
from the Malice of Skyresh Bolgolam the High Admiral: whereupon my Chains were
immediately unlocked, and I was at full liberty; the Emperor himself in Person did me the
Honour to be by at the whole Ceremony. I made my Acknowledgments by prostrating
myself at his Majesty's Feet: But he commanded me to rise; and after many gracious
Expressions, which, to avoid the Censure of Vanity, I shall not repeat, he added, that he
hoped I should prove a useful Servant, and well deserve all the Favours he had already
conferred upon me, or might do for the future.
The Reader may please to observe, that in the last Article for the Recovery of my Liberty
the Emperor stipulates to allow me a Quantity of Meat and Drink sufficient for the
support of 1728 Lilliputians. Some time after, asking a Friend at Court how they came to
fix on that determinate Number; he told me that his Majesty's Mathematicians, having
taken the Height of my body by the help of a Quadrant, and finding it to exceed theirs in
the Proportion of Twelve to One, they concluded from the Similarity of their Bodies, that
mine must contain at least 1728 of theirs, and consequently would require as much Food
as was necessary to support that number of Lilliputians. By which the Reader may
conceive an Idea of the Ingenuity of that People, as well as the prudent and exact
Oeconomy of so great a Prince.
CHAPTER IV.
Mildendo, the Metropolis of Lilliput, described, together with the Emperor's Palace.
A Conversation between the Author and a Principal Secretary, concerning the Affairs
of that Empire: The Author Offers to serve the Emperor in his Wars.
The first Request I made after I had obtained my Liberty, was, that I might have Licence
to see Mildendo, the Metropolis, which the Emperor easily granted me, but with a special
Charge to do no hurt either to the Inhabitants or their Houses. The People had notice by
Proclamation of my design to visit the Town. The Wall which encompassed it is two foot
and a half high, and at least eleven Inches broad, so that a Coach and Horses may be
driven very safely round it; and it is flanked with strong Towers at ten foot distance. I
stept over the great Western Gate, and passed very gently, and sideling through the two
principal Streets, only in my short Waistcoat, for fear of damaging the Roofs and Eaves
of the Houses with the Skirts of my Coat. I walked with the utmost Circumspection, to
avoid treading on any Stragglers, that might remain in the Streets, although the Orders
were very strict, that all People should keep in their Houses at their own peril. The
Garret-windows and Tops of Houses were so crowded with Spectators, that I thought in
all my Travels I had not seen a more populous Place. The City is an exact Square, each
Side of the Wall being five hundred foot long. The two great Streets, which run cross and
divide it into four Quarters, are five foot wide. The Lanes and Alleys, which I could not
enter, but only viewed them as I passed, are from twelve to eighteen Inches. The Town is
capable of holding five hundred thousand Souls. The Houses are from three to five
Stories. The Shops and Markets well provided.
The Emperor's Palace is in the Center of the City, where the two great Streets meet. It is
enclosed by a Wall of two foot high, and twenty foot distant from the buildings. I had his
Majesty's Permission to step over this Wall; and the Space being so wide between that
and the Palace, I could easily view it on every side. The outward Court is a Square of
forty foot, and includes two other Courts: in the inmost are the Royal Apartments, which
I was very desirous to see, but found it extremely difficult; for the great Gates, from one
Square into another, were but eighteen Inches high and seven Inches wide. Now the
Buildings of the outer Court were at least five foot high, and it was impossible for me to
stride over them without infinite Damage to the Pile, though the Walls were strongly built
of hewn Stone, and four Inches thick. At the same time the Emperor had a great desire
that I should see the Magnificence of his Palace; but this I was not able to do till three
Days after, which I spent in cutting down with my Knife some of the largest Trees in the
Royal Park, about an hundred Yards distant from the City. Of these Trees I made two
Stools, each about three foot high, and strong enough to bear my Weight. The People
having received notice a second time, I went again through the City to the Palace, with
my two Stools in my Hands. When I came to the side of the outer Court, I stood upon one
Stool, and took the other in my Hand: This I lifted over the Roof, and gently set it down
on the Space between the first and second Court, which was eight foot wide. I then stept
over the Buildings very conveniently from one Stool to the other, and drew up the first
after me with a hooked Stick. By this Contrivance I got into the inmost Court; and lying
down upon my Side, I applied my Face to the Windows of the middle Stories, which
were left open on purpose, and discovered the most splendid Apartments that can be
imagined. There I saw the Empress and the young Princes, in their several Lodgings, with
their chief Attendants about them. Her Imperial Majesty was pleased to smile very
graciously upon me, and gave me out of the Window her Hand to kiss.
But I shall not anticipate the Reader with farther Descriptions of this kind, because I
reserve them for a greater Work, which is now almost ready for the Press, containing a
general Description of this Empire, from its first Erection, through a long Series of
Princes, with a particular Account of their Wars and Politicks, Laws, Learning, and
Religion: their Plants and Animals, their peculiar Manners and Customs, with other
Matters very curious and useful; my chief design at present being only to relate such
Events and Transactions as happened to the Publick, or to myself, during a Residence of
about nine Months in that Empire.
One Morning, about a Fortnight after I had obtained my Liberty, Reldresal, Principal
Secretary (as they style him) of private Affairs, came to my House, attended only by one
Servant. He ordered his Coach to wait at a distance, and desired I would give him an
Hour's Audience; which I readily consented to, on account of his Quality, and Personal
Merits, as well as the many good Offices he had done me during my Sollicitations at
Court. I offered to lie down, that he might the more conveniently reach my Ear; but he
chose rather to let me hold him in my hand during our Conversation. He began with
Compliments on my Liberty; said he might pretend to some Merit in it: but, however,
added, that if it had not been for the present Situation of things at Court, perhaps I might
not have obtained it so soon. For, said he, as flourishing a Condition as we may appear to
be in to Foreigners, we labor under two mighty Evils; a violent Faction at home, and the
Danger of an Invasion by a most potent Enemy from abroad. As to the first, you are to
understand, that for above seventy Moons past there have been two struggling Parties in
this Empire, under the Names of Tramecksan and Slamecksan, from the high and low
Heels on their shoes, by which they distinguish themselves. It is alleged indeed, that the
high Heels are most agreeable to our ancient Constitution: But however this be, his
Majesty has determined to make use of only low Heels in the Administration of the
Government, and all Offices in the Gift of the Crown, as you cannot but observe; and
particularly, that his Majesty's Imperial Heels are lower at least by a Drurr than any of
his Court; (Drurr is a Measure about the fourteenth Part of an Inch). The Animositys
between these two Parties run so high, that they will neither eat nor drink, nor talk with
each other. We compute the Tramecksan, or High-Heels, to exceed us in number; but the
Power is wholly on our Side. We apprehend his Imperial Highness, the Heir to the
Crown, to have some Tendency towards the High-Heels; at least we can plainly discover
one of his Heels higher than the other, which gives him a Hobble in his Gait. Now, in the
midst of these intestine Disquiets, we are threatened with an Invasion from the Island of
Blefuscu, which is the other great Empire of the Universe, almost as large and powerful
as this of his Majesty. For as to what we have heard you affirm, that there are other
Kingdoms and States in the World inhabited by human Creatures as large as yourself, our
Philosophers are in much doubt, and would rather conjecture that you dropt from the
Moon, or one of the Stars; because it is certain, that a hundred Mortals of your Bulk
would, in a short time, destroy all the Fruits and Cattle of his Majesty's Dominions.
Besides, our Histories of six thousand Moons make no mention of any other Regions,
than the two great Empires of Lilliput and Blefuscu. Which two mighty Powers have, as I
was going to tell you, been engaged in a most obstinate War for six and thirty Moons
past. It began upon the following Occasion. It is allowed on all Hands, that the primitive
way of breaking Eggs, before we eat them, was upon the larger End: But his present
Majesty's Grand-father, while he was a Boy, going to eat an Egg, and breaking it
according to the ancient Practice, happened to cut one of his Fingers. Whereupon the
Emperor his Father published an Edict, commanding all his Subjects, upon great
Penaltys, to break the smaller End of their Eggs. The People so highly resented this Law,
that our Histories tell us there have been six Rebellions raised on that account; wherein
one Emperor lost his Life, and another his Crown. These civil Commotions were
constantly fomented by the Monarchs of Blefuscu; and when they were quelled, the
Exiles always fled for Refuge to that Empire. It is computed, that eleven thousand
Persons have, at several times, suffered Death, rather than submit to break their Eggs at
the smaller End. Many hundred large Volumes have been published upon this
Controversy: But the books of the Big-Endians have been long forbidden, and the whole
Party rendered incapable by Law of holding Employments. During the Course of these
Troubles, the Emperors of Blefuscu did frequently expostulate by their Ambassadors,
accusing us of making a Schism in Religion, by offending against a fundamental Doctrine
of our great Prophet Lustrog, in the fifty-fourth Chapter of the Brundrecal (which is their
Alcoran.) This, however, is thought to be a meer Strain upon the Text: For the Words are
these: That all true Believers shall break their Eggs at the convenient End: and which is
the convenient End, seems, in my humble Opinion, to be left to every Man's Conscience,
or at least in the power of the Chief Magistrate to determine. Now the Big-Endian Exiles
have found so much Credit in the Emperor of Blefuscu's Court, and so much private
Assistance and Encouragement from their Party here at home, that a bloody War has been
carried on between the two Empires for six and thirty Moons with various Success;
during which time we have lost forty Capital Ships, and a much greater number of
smaller Vessels, together with thirty thousand of our best Seamen and Soldiers; and the
Damage received by the Enemy is reckon'd to be somewhat greater than Ours. However,
they have now equipped a numerous Fleet, and are just preparing to make a Descent upon
us; and his Imperial Majesty, placing great Confidence in your Valour and Strength, has
commanded me to lay this Account of his affairs before you.
I desired the Secretary to present my humble Duty to the Emperor, and to let him know,
that I thought it would not become Me, who was a Foreigner, to interfere with Parties; but
I was ready, with the hazard of my Life, to defend his Person and State against all
Invaders.
8.
Samuel Richardson (1689-1761)
Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (1740)
Letter I.
In a Series of Familiar Letters, etc.
Dear Father and Mother,
I have great Trouble, and some Comfort, to acquaint you with. The Trouble is, that my
good Lady died of the Illness I mention’d to you, and left us all much griev’d for her
Loss; for she was a dear good Lady, and kind to all us her Servants. Much I fear’d, that as
I was taken by her Goodness to wait upon her Person, I should be quite destitute again,
and forc’d to return to you and my poor Mother, who have so much to do to maintain
yourselves; and, as my Lady’s Goodness had put me to write and cast Accompts, and
made me a little expert at my Needle, and other Qualifications above my Degree, it
would have been no easy Matter to find a Place that your poor Pamela was fit for: But
God, whose Graciousness to us we have so often experienc’d at a Pinch, put it into my
good Lady’s Heart, on her Death-bed, just an Hour before she expir’d, to recommend to
my young Master all her Servants, one by one; and when it came to my Turn to be
recommended, for I was sobbing and crying at her Pillow, she could only say, My dear
Son! - and so broke off a little, and then recovering - Remember my poor Pamela! - And
these were some of her last Words! O how my Eyes run! - Don’t wonder to see the Paper
so blotted!
Well, but God’s Will must be done! - and so comes the Comfort, that I shall not be
oblig’d to return back to be a Clog upon my dear Parents! For my Master said, I will take
care of you all, my Lasses; and for you, Pamela, (and took me by the Hand; yes, he took
me by the Hand before them all) for my dear Mother’s sake, I will be a Friend to you, and
you shall take care of my Linen. God bless him! and pray with me, my dear Father and
Mother, for God to bless him: For he has given Mourning and a Year’s Wages to all my
Lady’s Servants; and I having no Wages as yet, but what my Lady said she would do for
me as I deserv’d, order’d the House-keeper to give me Mourning with the rest, and gave
me with his own Hand Four golden Guineas, besides lesser Money, which were in my old
Lady’s Pocket when she dy’d; and said, If I was a good Girl, and faithful and diligent, he
would be a Friend to me, for his Mother’s sake. And so I send you these four Guineas for
your Comfort; for God will not let me want: And so you may pay some old Debt with
Part; and keep the other Part to comfort you both. If I get more, I am sure it is my Duty,
and it shall be my Care to love and cherish you both; for you have lov’d me and cherish’d
me, when I could do nothing for myself: And so you have for us all, or what must have
become of us! I send it by John our Footman, who goes your way; but he does not know
what he carries; because I seal it up in one of the little Pill- boxes which my Lady had,
wrapt close in Paper, that it mayn’t chink; and be sure don’t open it before him.
I know, dear Father and Mother, I must give you both Grief and Pleasure; and so I will
only say, Pray for your Pamela; who will ever be,
Your most dutiful Daughter.
I have been scared out of my Senses; for just now, as I was folding this Letter, in my late
Lady’s Dressing- room, in comes my young Master! Good Sirs! how was I frightned! I
went to hide the Letter in my Bosom, and he seeing me frighted, said, smiling, Who have
you been writing to, Pamela? - I said, in my Fright, Pray your Honour forgive me! - Only
to my Father and Mother. He said, Well then, Let me see how you are come on in your
Writing! O how I was sham’d! - He, in my Fright, took it, without saying more, and read
it quite thro’, and then gave it me again; - and I said, Pray your Honour forgive me; - yet I
know not for what. For he was always dutiful to his Parents; and why should he be angry,
that I was so to mine! And indeed he was not angry; for he took me by the Hand, and
said, You are a good Girl, Pamela, to be kind to your aged Father and Mother. I am not
angry with you. Be faithful, and diligent; and do as you should do, and I like you the
better for this. And then he said, Why, Pamela, you write a very pretty Hand, and spell
tolerably too. I see my good Mother’s Care in your Learning has not been thrown away
upon you. My Mother used to say, you lov’d reading; you may look into any of her
Books to improve yourself, so you take care of them. To be sure I did nothing but
curchee and cry, and was all in Confusion, at his Goodness. Indeed he is the best of
Gentlemen, I think! But I am making another long Letter. So will only say more, I shall
ever be,
Your dutiful Daughter,
PAMELA ANDREWS.
Letter II.
In Answer to the preceding.
Dear Pamela,
Your letter was indeed a great Trouble and some Comfort to me, and your poor
Mother. We are troubled, to be sure, for your good Lady’s Death, who took such care of
you, and gave you Learning, and for Three Years past has always been giving you
Cloaths and Linen, and every thing that a Gentlewoman need not be asham’d to appear
in. But our chief Trouble is, and indeed a very great one, for fear you should be brought
to any thing dishonest or wicked, by being set so above yourself. Every body talks how
you have come on, and what a genteel Girl you are, and some say, you are very pretty;
and indeed, Six Months since, when I saw you last, I should have thought so too, if you
was not our Child. But what avails all this, if you are to be ruin’d and undone! - Indeed,
my dear Child, we begin to be in great Fear for you; for what signifies all the Riches in
the World with a bad Conscience, and to be disonest? We are, ‘tis true, very poor, and
find it hard enough to live; tho’ once, as you know, it was better with us. But we would
sooner live upon the Water and Clay of the Ditches I am forc’d to dig, than to live better
at the Price of our dear Child’s Ruin.
I hope the good ‘Squire has no Design; but when he has given you so much Money,
and speaks so kindly to you, and praises your coming on; and Oh! that fatal Word, that he
would be kind to you, if you would do as you should do, almost kills us with Fears.
I have spoken to good old Widow Mumford about it, who, you know, has formerly
lived in good Families, and she puts us in some Comfort; for she says, it is not unusual,
when a Lady dies, to give what she has about her to her Waiting-maid, and to such as sit
up with her in her Illness. But then, why should he smile so kindly upon you? Why
should he take such a poor Girl as you by the Hand, as your Letter says he has done
twice? Why should he stoop to read your Letter to us; and commend your Writing and
Spelling? And, why should he give you Leave to read his Mother’s Books! - Indeed,
indeed, my dearest Child, our Hearts ake for you; and then you seem so full of Joy at his
Goodness, so taken with his kind Expressions, which truly are very great Favours, if he
means well, that we fear - Yes, my dear Child, we fear - you should be too grateful, - and
reward him with that Jewel, your Virtue, which no Riches, nor Favour, nor any thing in
this Life, can make up to you.
I, too, have written a long Letter; but will say one Thing more; and that is, That in the
Midst of our Poverty and Misfortunes, we have trusted in God’s Goodness, and been
honest, and doubt not to be happy hereafter, if we continue to be good, tho’ our Lot is
hard here; but the Loss of our dear Child’s Virtue, would be a Grief that we could not
bear, and would bring our grey Hairs to the Grave at once.
If you love us then, if you value God’s Blessing, and your own future Happiness, we
both charge you to stand upon your Guard; and, if you find the least Attempt made upon
your Virtue, be sure you leave every thing behind you, and come away to us; for we had
rather see you all cover’d with Rags, and even follow you to the Church-yard, than have
it said, a Child of ours preferr’d worldly Conveniencies to her Virtue.
We accept kindly of your dutiful Present; but ‘till we are out of our Pain, cannot make
use of it, for fear we should partake of the Price of our poor Daughter’s Shame: So have
laid it up in a Rag among the Thatch, over the Window, for a while, lest we should be
robb’d. With our Blessings and our hearty Prayers for you, we remain,
Your careful, but loving Father and Mother,
JOHN and ELIZABETH ANDREWS.
Letter III.
Dear Father,
I must needs say, that your Letter has fill’d me with much Trouble. For it has made my
Heart, which was overflowing with Gratitude for my young Master’s Goodness,
suspicious and fearful; and yet, I hope I never shall find him to act unworthy of his
Character; for what could he get by ruining such a poor young Creature as me? But that
which gives me most Trouble is, that you seem to mistrust the Honesty of your Child.
No, my dear Father and Mother, be assur’d, that, by God’s Grace, I never will do any
thing that shall bring your grey Hairs with Sorrow to the Grave. I will die a thousand
Deaths, rather than be dishonest any way. Of that be assur’d, and set your Hearts at rest;
for altho’ I have liv’d above myself for some Time past, yet I can be content with Rags
and Poverty, and Bread and Water, and will embrace them rather than forfeit my good
Name, let who will be the Tempter. And of this rest satisfy’d, and think better of
Your dutiful Daughter till Death.
9.
Laurence Sterne (1713-1768)
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
(1759-1767)
Volume I.
Chap. I.
I wish either my father or my mother, or indeed both of them, as they were in duty both
equally bound to it, had minded what they were about when they begot me; had they duly
consider’d how much depended upon what they were then doing; - that not only the
production of a rational Being was concern’d in it, but that possibly the happy formation
and temperature of his body, perhaps his genius and the very cast of his mind; - and, for
aught they knew to the contrary, even the fortunes of his whole house might take their
turn from the humours and dispositions which were then uppermost: – Had they duly
weighed and considered all this, and proceeded accordingly, – I am verily persuaded I
should have made a quite different figure in the world, from that, in which the reader is
likely to see me. - Believe me, good folks, this is not so inconsiderable a thing as many of
you may think it; - you have all, I dare say, heard of the animal spirits, as how they are
transfused from father to son, etc. etc. - and a great deal to that purpose: - Well, you may
take my word, that nine parts in ten of a man’s sense or his nonsense, his successes and
miscarriages in this world depend upon their motions and activity, and the different tracks
and trains you put them into; so that when they are once set a-going, whether right or
wrong, ‘tis not a halfpenny matter, - away they go cluttering like hey-go-mad; and by
treading the same steps over and over again, they presently make a road of it, as plain and
as smooth as a garden-walk, which, when they are once used to, the Devil himself
sometimes shall not be able to drive them off it.
Pray, my dear, quoth my mother, have you not forgot to wind up the clock? – Good G ! cried my father, making an exclamation, but taking care to moderate his voice at the
same time, – Did ever woman, since the creation of the world, interrupt a man with such
a silly question? Pray, what was your father saying? – Nothing.
Chap. II.
- Then, positively, there is nothing in the question, that I can see, either good or bad. –
Then let me tell you, Sir, it was a very unseasonable question at least, - because it
scattered and dispersed the animal spirits, whose business it was to have escorted and
gone hand-in-hand with the HOMUNCULUS, and conducted him safe to the place
destined for his reception.
The HOMUNCULUS, Sir, in how-ever low and ludicrous a light he may appear, in
this age of levity, to the eye of folly or prejudice; - to the eye of reason in scientifick
research, he stands confess’d - a BEING guarded and circumscribed with rights: – The
minutest philosophers, who, by the bye, have the most enlarged understandings, (their
souls being inversely as their enquiries) shew us incontestably, That the HOMUNCULUS
is created by the same hand, - engender’d in the same course of nature, - endowed with
the same loco-motive powers and faculties with us: – That he consists, as we do, of skin,
hair, fat, flesh, veins, arteries, ligaments, nerves, cartilages, bones, marrow, brains,
glands, genitals, humours, and articulations; – is a Being of as much activity, – and, in all
senses of the word, as much and as truly our fellow-creature as my Lord Chancellor of
England. - He may be benefited, he may be injured, - he may obtain redress; - in a word,
he has all the claims and rights of humanity, which Tully, Puffendorff, or the best ethick
writers allow to arise out of that state and relation.
Now, dear Sir, what if any accident had befallen him in his way alone? –or that, thro’
terror of it, natural to so young a traveller, my little gentleman had got to his journey’s
end miserably spent; – his muscular strength and virility worn down to a thread; - his own
animal spirits ruffled beyond description, - and that in this sad disorder’d state of nerves,
he had laid down a prey to sudden starts, or a series of melancholy dreams and fancies for
nine long, long months together. – I tremble to think what a foundation had been laid for
a thousand weaknesses both of body and mind, which no skill of the physician or the
philosopher could ever afterwards have set thoroughly to rights.
Chap. III.
To my uncle Mr. Toby Shandy do I stand indebted for the preceding anecdote, to whom
my father, who was an excellent natural philosopher, and much given to close reasoning
upon the smallest matters, had oft, and heavily, complain’d of the injury; but once more
particularly, as my uncle Toby well remember’d, upon his observing a most
unaccountable obliquity, (as he call’d it) in my manner of setting up my top, and
justifying the principles upon which I had done it, - the old gentleman shook his head,
and in a tone more expressive by half of sorrow than reproach, - he said his heart all
along foreboded, and he saw it verified in this, and from a thousand other observations he
had made upon me, That I should neither think nor act like any other man’s child: – But
alas! continued he, shaking his head a second time, and wiping away a tear which was
trickling down his cheeks, My Tristram’s misfortunes began nine months before ever he
came into the world.
– My mother, who was sitting by, look’d up, - but she knew no more than her backside
what my father meant, - but my uncle, Mr. Toby Shandy, who had been often informed of
the affair, - understood him very well.
Chap. IV.
I know there are readers in the world, as well as many other good people in it, who are no
readers at all, - who find themselves ill at ease, unless they are let into the whole secret
from first to last, of every thing which concerns you.
It is in pure compliance with this humour of theirs, and from a backwardness in my
nature to disappoint any one soul living, that I have been so very particular already. As
my life and opinions are likely to make some noise in the world, and, if I conjecture right,
will take in all ranks, professions, and denominations of men whatever, - be no less read
than the Pilgrim’s Progress itself - and, in the end, prove the very thing which Montaigne
dreaded his essays should turn out, that is, a book for a parlour-window; - I find it
necessary to consult every one a little in his turn; and therefore must beg pardon for going
on a little further in the same way: For which cause, right glad I am, that I have begun the
history of myself in the way I have done; and that I am able to go on tracing every thing
in it, as Horace says, ab Ovo.
Horace, I know, does not recommend this fashion altogether: But that gentleman is
speaking only of an epic poem or a tragedy; - (I forget which) - besides, if it was not so, I
should beg Mr. Horace’s pardon; - for in writing what I have set about, I shall confine
myself neither to his rules, nor to any man’s rules that ever lived.
To such, however, as do not choose to go so far back into these things, I can give no
better advice, than that they skip over the remaining part of this Chapter; for I declare
before hand, ‘tis wrote only for the curious and inquisitive.
–––––– Shut the door. ––––––
I was begot in the night, betwixt the first Sunday and the first Monday in the month of
March, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighteen. I am positive I
was. - But how I came to be so very particular in my account of a thing which happened
before I was born, is owing to another small anecdote known only in our own family, but
now made publick for the better clearing up this point.
My father, you must know, who was originally a Turky merchant, but had left off
business for some years, in order to retire to, and die upon, his paternal estate in the
county of –, was, I believe, one of the most regular men in every thing he did, whether
‘twas matter of business, or matter of amusement, that ever lived. As a small specimen of
this extreme exactness of his, to which he was in truth a slave, - he had made it a rule for
many years of his life, - on the first Sunday night of every month throughout the whole
year, - as certain as ever the Sunday night came, – to wind up a large house-clock which
we had standing upon the back-stairs head, with his own hands: - And being somewhere
between fifty and sixty years of age, at the time I have been speaking of, - he had
likewise gradually brought some other little family concernments to the same period, in
order, as he would often say to my uncle Toby, to get them all out of the way at one time,
and be no more plagued and pester’d with them the rest of the month.
It was attended but with one misfortune, which, in a great measure, fell upon myself,
and the effects of which I fear I shall carry with me to my grave; namely, that, from an
unhappy association of ideas which have no connection in nature, it so fell out at length,
that my poor mother could never hear the said clock wound up, - but the thoughts of
some other things unavoidably popp’d into her head, - & vice versâ: - which strange
combination of ideas, the sagacious Locke, who certainly understood the nature of these
things better than most men, affirms to have produced more wry actions than all other
sources of prejudice whatsoever.
But this by the bye.
10. Jane Austen (1775-1817)
Pride and Prejudice (1813)
Volume I, Chapter I
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune,
must be in want of a wife.
However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering
a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that
he is considered as the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters.
‘My dear Mr. Bennet,’ said his lady to him one day, ‘have you heard that Netherfield
Park is let at last?’
Mr. Bennet replied that he had not.
‘But it is,’ returned she; ‘for Mrs. Long has just been here, and she told me all about
it.’
Mr. Bennet made no answer.
‘Do not you want to know who has taken it?’ cried his wife impatiently.
‘You want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it.’
This was invitation enough.
‘Why, my dear, you must know, Mrs. Long says that Netherfield is taken by a young
man of large fortune from the north of England; that he came down on Monday in a
chaise and four to see the place, and was so much delighted with it that he agreed with
Mr. Morris immediately; that he is to take possession before Michaelmas, and some of
his servants are to be in the house by the end of next week.’
‘What is his name?’
‘Bingley.’
‘Is he married or single?’
‘Oh! single, my dear, to be sure! A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a
year. What a fine thing for our girls!’
‘How so? how can it affect them?’
‘My dear Mr. Bennet,’ replied his wife, ‘how can you be so tiresome! You must know
that I am thinking of his marrying one of them.’
‘Is that his design in settling here?’
‘Design! nonsense, how can you talk so! But it is very likely that he may fall in love
with one of them, and therefore you must visit him as soon as he comes.’
‘I see no occasion for that. You and the girls may go, or you may send them by
themselves, which perhaps will be still better, for as you are as handsome as any of them,
Mr. Bingley might like you the best of the party.’
‘My dear, you flatter me. I certainly have had my share of beauty, but I do not pretend
to be any thing extraordinary now. When a woman has five grown up daughters, she
ought to give over thinking of her own beauty.’
‘In such cases, a woman has not often much beauty to think of.’
‘But, my dear, you must indeed go and see Mr. Bingley when he comes into the
neighbourhood.’
‘It is more than I engage for, I assure you.’
‘But consider your daughters. Only think what an establishment it would be for one of
them. Sir William and Lady Lucas are determined to go, merely on that account, for in
general you know they visit no new comers. Indeed you must go, for it will be impossible
for us to visit him, if you do not.’
‘You are over scrupulous surely. I dare say Mr. Bingley will be very glad to see you;
and I will send a few lines by you to assure him of my hearty consent to his marrying
which ever he chuses of the girls; though I must throw in a good word for my little
Lizzy.’
‘I desire you will do no such thing. Lizzy is not a bit better than the others; and I am
sure she is not half so handsome as Jane, nor half so good humoured as Lydia. But you
are always giving her the preference.’
‘They have none of them much to recommend them,’ replied he; ‘they are all silly and
ignorant like other girls; but Lizzy has something more of quickness than her sisters.’
‘Mr. Bennet, how can you abuse your own children in such a way? You take delight in
vexing me. You have no compassion on my poor nerves.’
‘You mistake me, my dear. I have a high respect for your nerves. They are my old
friends. I have heard you mention them with consideration these twenty years at least.’
‘Ah! you do not know what I suffer.’
‘But I hope you will get over it, and live to see many young men of four thousand a
year come into the neighbourhood.’
‘It will be no use to us, if twenty such should come since you will not visit them.’
‘Depend upon it, my dear, that when there are twenty, I will visit them all.’
Mr. Bennet was so odd a mixture of quick parts, sarcastic humour, reserve, and
caprice, that the experience of three and twenty years had been insufficient to make his
wife understand his character. Her mind was less difficult to develope. She was a woman
of mean understanding, little information, and uncertain temper. When she was
discontented she fancied herself nervous. The business of her life was to get her
daughters married; its solace was visiting and news.
Chapter II
Mr. Bennet was among the earliest of those who waited on Mr. Bingley. He had always
intended to visit him, though to the last always assuring his wife that he should not go;
and till the evening after the visit was paid, she had no knowledge of it. It was then
disclosed in the following manner. Observing his second daughter employed in trimming
a hat, he suddenly addressed her with.
‘I hope Mr. Bingley will like it Lizzy.’
‘We are not in a way to know what Mr. Bingley likes,’ said her mother resentfully,
‘since we are not to visit.’
‘But you forget, mama,’ said Elizabeth, ‘that we shall meet him at the assemblies, and
that Mrs. Long has promised to introduce him.’
‘I do not believe Mrs. Long will do any such thing. She has two neices of her own. She
is a selfish, hypocritical woman, and I have no opinion of her.’
‘No more have I,’ said Mr. Bennet; ‘and I am glad to find that you do not depend on
her serving you.’
Mrs. Bennet deigned not to make any reply; but unable to contain herself, began
scolding one of her daughters.
‘Don't keep coughing so, Kitty, for heaven's sake! Have a little compassion on my
nerves. You tear them to pieces.’
‘Kitty has no discretion in her coughs,’ said her father; ‘she times them ill.’
‘I do not cough for my own amusement,’ replied Kitty fretfully.
‘When is your next ball to be, Lizzy?’
‘To-morrow fortnight.’
‘Aye, so it is,’ cried her mother, ‘and Mrs. Long does not come back till the day
before; so, it will be impossible for her to introduce him, for she will not know him
herself.’
‘Then, my dear, you may have the advantage of your friend, and introduce Mr. Bingley
to her.’
‘Impossible, Mr. Bennet, impossible, when I am not acquainted with him myself; how
can you be so teazing?’
‘I honour your circumspection. A fortnight's acquaintance is certainly very little. One
cannot know what a man really is by the end of a fortnight. But if we do not venture,
somebody else will; and after all, Mrs. Long and her neices must stand their chance; and
therefore, as she will think it an act of kindness, if you decline the office, I will take it on
myself.’
The girls stared at their father. Mrs. Bennet said only, ‘Nonsense, nonsense!’
‘What can be the meaning of that emphatic exclamation?’ cried he. ‘Do you consider
the forms of introduction, and the stress that is laid on them, as nonsense? I cannot quite
agree with you there. What say you, Mary? for you are a young lady of deep reflection I
know, and read great books, and make extracts.’
Mary wished to say something very sensible, but knew not how.
‘While Mary is adjusting her ideas,’ he continued, ‘let us return to Mr. Bingley.’
‘I am sick of Mr. Bingley,’ cried his wife.
‘I am sorry to hear that; but why did not you tell me so before? If I had known as much
this morning, I certainly would not have called on him. It is very unlucky; but as I have
actually paid the visit, we cannot escape the acquaintance now.’
The astonishment of the ladies was just what he wished; that of Mrs. Bennet perhaps
surpassing the rest; though when the first tumult of joy was over, she began to declare
that it was what she had expected all the while.
‘How good it was in you, my dear Mr. Bennet! But I knew I should persuade you at
last. I was sure you loved your girls too well to neglect such an acquaintance. Well, how
pleased I am! and it is such a good joke, too, that you should have gone this morning, and
never said a word about it till now.’
‘Now, Kitty, you may cough as much as you chuse,’ said Mr. Bennet; and, as he spoke,
he left the room, fatigued with the raptures of his wife.
‘What an excellent father you have, girls,’ said she, when the door was shut. ‘I do not
know how you will ever make him amends for his kindness; or me either, for that matter.
At our time of life, it is not so pleasant I can tell you, to be making new acquaintance
every day; but for your sakes, we would do any thing. Lydia, my love, though you are the
youngest, I dare say Mr. Bingley will dance with you at the next ball.’
‘Oh!’ said Lydia stoutly, ‘I am not afraid; for though I am the youngest, I'm the tallest.’
The rest of the evening was spent in conjecturing how soon he would return Mr.
Bennet's visit, and determining when they should ask him to dinner.
11. Bram Stoker (1847-1912)
Dracula (1897)
Chapter I: Jonathan Harker’s Journal
(Kept in shorthand)
3 May. Bistritz. - Left Munich at 8.35 p.m. on 1st May, arriving at Vienna early next
morning; should have arrived at 6.46, but train was an hour late. Buda- Pesth seems a
wonderful place, from the glimpse which I got of it from the train and the little I could
walk through the streets. I feared to go very far from the station, as we had arrived late
and would start as near the correct time as possible. The impression I had was that we
were leaving the West and entering the East; the most Western of splendid bridges over
the Danube, which is here of noble width and depth, took us among the traditions of
Turkish rule.
We left in pretty good time, and came after nightfall to Klausenburgh. Here I stopped
for the night at the Hôtel Royale. I had for dinner, or rather supper, a chicken done up
some way with red pepper, which was very good but thirsty. (Mem., get recipe for Mina.)
I asked the waiter, and he said it was called ‘paprika hendl,’ and that, as it was a national
dish, I should be able to get it anywhere along the Carpathians. I found my smattering of
German very useful here; indeed, I don’t know how I should be able to get on without it.
Having some time at my disposal when in London, I had visited the British Museum,
and made search among the books and maps in the library regarding Transylvania; it had
struck me that some foreknowledge of the country could hardly fail to have some
importance in dealing with a noble of that country. I find that the district he named is in
the extreme east of the country, just on the borders of three states, Transylvania,
Moldavia, and Bukovina, in the midst of the Carpathian mountains; one of the wildest
and least known portions of Europe. I was not able to light on any map or work giving
the exact locality of the Castle Dracula, as there are no maps of this country as yet to
compare with our own Ordnance Survey maps; but I found that Bistritz, the post town
named by Count Dracula, is a fairly well-known place. I shall enter here some of my
notes, as they may refresh my memory when I talk over my travels with Mina.
In the population of Transylvania there are four distinct nationalities: Saxons in the
south, and mixed with them the Wallachs, who are the descendants of the Dacians;
Magyars in the west, and Szekelys in the east and north. I am going among the latter, who
claim to be descended from Attila and the Huns. This may be so, for when the Magyars
conquered the country in the eleventh century they found the Huns settled in it. I read that
every known superstition in the world is gathered into the horseshoe of the Carpathians,
as if it were the centre of some sort of imaginative whirlpool; if so my stay may be very
interesting. (Mem., I must ask the Count all about them.)
I did not sleep well, though my bed was comfortable enough, for I had all sorts of
queer dreams. There was a dog howling all night under my window, which may have had
something to do with it; or it may have been the paprika, for I had to drink up all the
water in my carafe, and was still thirsty. Towards morning I slept and was wakened by
the continuous knocking at my door, so I guess I must have been sleeping soundly then. I
had for breakfast more paprika, and a sort of porridge of maize flour which they said was
‘mamaliga,’ and egg-plant stuffed with forcemeat, a very excellent dish, which they call
‘impletata.’ (Mem., get recipe for this also.) I had to hurry breakfast, for the train started
a little before eight, or rather it ought to have done so, for after rushing to the station at
7.30 I had to sit in the carriage for more than an hour before we began to move. It seems
to me that the further East you go the more unpunctual are the trains. What ought they to
be in China?
All day long we seemed to dawdle through a country which was full of beauty of every
kind. Sometimes we saw little towns or castles on the top of steep hills such as we see in
old missals; sometimes we ran by rivers and streams which seemed from the wide stony
margin on each side of them to be subject to great floods. It takes a lot of water, and
running strong, to sweep the outside edge of a river clear. At every station there were
groups of people, sometimes crowds, and in all sorts of attire. Some of them were just
like the peasants at home or those I saw coming through France and Germany, with short
jackets and round hats and home-made trousers; but others were very picturesque. The
women looked pretty, except when you got near them, but they were very clumsy about
the waist. They had all full white sleeves of some kind or other, and most of them had big
belts with a lot of strips of something fluttering from them like the dresses in a ballet, but
of course petticoats under them. The strangest figures we saw were the Slovaks, who are
more barbarian than the rest, with their big cowboy hats, great baggy dirty-white trousers,
white linen shirts, and enormous heavy leather belts, nearly a foot wide, all studded over
with brass nails. They wore high boots, with their trousers tucked into them, and had long
black hair and heavy black moustaches. They are very picturesque, but do not look
prepossessing. On the stage they would be set down at once as some old Oriental band of
brigands. They are, however, I am told, very harmless and rather wanting in natural selfassertion.
It was on the dark side of twilight when we got to Bistritz, which is a very interesting
old place. Being practically on the frontier - for the Borgo Pass leads from it into
Bukovina - it has had a very stormy existence, and it certainly shows marks of it. Fifty
years ago a series of great fires took place, which made terrible havoc on five separate
occasions. At the very beginning of the seventeenth century it underwent a siege of three
weeks and lost 13,000 people, the casualties of war proper being assisted by famine and
disease.
Count Dracula had directed me to go to the Golden Krone Hotel, which I found, to my
great delight, to be thoroughly old-fashioned, for of course I wanted to see all I could of
the ways of the country. I was evidently expected, for when I got near the door I faced a
cheery-looking elderly woman in the usual peasant dress - white undergarment with long
double apron, front and back, of coloured stuff fitting almost too tight for modesty. When
I came close she bowed, and said: »The Herr Englishman?« »Yes,« I said, »Jonathan
Harker.« She smiled, and gave some message to an elderly man in white shirt-sleeves,
who had followed her to the door. He went, but immediately returned with a letter: »My Friend, - Welcome to the Carpathians. I am anxiously expecting you. Sleep well to-
night. At three to-morrow the diligence will start for Bukovina; a place on it is kept for
you. At the Borgo Pass my carriage will await you and will bring you to me. I trust that
your journey from London has been a happy one, and that you will enjoy your stay in my
beautiful land. - Your friend,
DRACULA.«
4 May. - I found that my landlord had got a letter from the Count, directing him to secure
the best place on the coach for me; but on making inquiries as to details he seemed
somewhat reticent, and pretended that he could not understand my German. This could
not be true, because up to then he had understood it perfectly; at least, he answered my
questions exactly as if he did. He and his wife, the old lady who had received me, looked
at each other in a frightened sort of way. He mumbled out that the money had been sent
in a letter, and that was all he knew. When I asked him if he knew Count Dracula, and
could tell me anything of his castle, both he and his wife crossed themselves, and, saying
that they knew nothing at all, simply refused to speak further. It was so near the time of
starting that I had no time to ask anyone else, for it was all very mysterious and not by
any means comforting.
Just before I was leaving, the old lady came up to my room and said in a very
hysterical way: »Must you go? Oh! young Herr, must you go?« She was in such an excited state that
she seemed to have lost her grip of what German she knew, and mixed it all up with some
other language which I did not know at all. I was just able to follow her by asking many
questions. When I told her that I must go at once, and that I was engaged on important
business, she asked again: »Do you know what day it is?« I answered that it was the fourth of May. She shook her
head as she said again: »Oh, yes! I know that, I know that! but do you know what day it is?« On my saying
that I did not understand, she went on:
»It is the eve of St. George’s Day. Do you not know that to-night, when the clock
strikes midnight, all the evil things in the world will have full sway? Do you know where
you are going, and what you are going to?« She was in such evident distress that I tried to
comfort her, but without effect. Finally she went down on her knees and implored me not
to go; at least to wait a day or two before starting. It was all very ridiculous, but I did not
feel comfortable. However, there was business to be done, and I could allow nothing to
interfere with it. I therefore tried to raise her up, and said, as gravely as I could, that I
thanked her, but my duty was imperative, and that I must go. She then rose and dried her
eyes, and taking a crucifix from her neck offered it to me. I did not know what to do, for,
as an English Churchman, I have been taught to regard such things as in some measure
idolatrous, and yet it seemed so ungracious to refuse an old lady meaning so well and in
such a state of mind. She saw, I suppose, the doubt in my face, for she put the rosary
round my neck, and said, »For your mother’s sake,« and went out of the room. I am
writing up this part of the diary whilst I am waiting for the coach, which is, of course,
late; and the crucifix is still round my neck. Whether it is the old lady’s fear, I do not
know, but I am not feeling nearly as easy in my mind as usual. If this book should ever
reach Mina before I do, let it bring my good-bye. Here comes the coach!