Rabelais.
The Earl of Huntingdon, living in the vicinity of a royal forest, and passionately1 attached to the chase from his infancy2, had long made as free with the king’s deer as Lord Percy proposed to do with those of Lord Douglas in the memorable3 hunting of Cheviot. It is sufficiently4 well known how severe were the forest-laws in those days, and with what jealousy5 the kings of England maintained this branch of their prerogative6; but menaces and remonstrances7 were thrown away on the earl, who declared that he would not thank Saint Peter for admission into Paradise, if he were obliged to leave his bow and hounds at the gate. King Henry (the Second) swore by Saint Botolph to make him rue8 his sport, and, having caused him to be duly and formally accused, summoned him to London to answer the charge. The earl, deeming himself safer among his own vassals9 than among king Henry’s courtiers, took no notice of the mandate10. King Henry sent a force to bring him, vi et armis, to court. The earl made a resolute11 resistance, and put the king’s force to flight under a shower of arrows: an act which the courtiers declared to be treason. At the same time, the abbot of Doncaster sued up the payment of certain moneys, which the earl, whose revenue ran a losing race with his hospitality, had borrowed at sundry12 times of the said abbot: for the abbots and the bishops13 were the chief usurers of those days, and, as the end sanctifies the means, were not in the least scrupulous14 of employing what would have been extortion in the profane15, to accomplish the pious16 purpose of bringing a blessing17 on the land by rescuing it from the frail18 hold of carnal and temporal into the firmer grasp of ghostly and spiritual possessors. But the earl, confident in the number and attachment19 of his retainers, stoutly20 refused either to repay the money, which he could not, or to yield the forfeiture21, which he would not: a refusal which in those days was an act of outlawry22 in a gentleman, as it is now of bankruptcy23 in a base mechanic; the gentleman having in our wiser times a more liberal privilege of gentility, which enables him to keep his land and laugh at his creditor24. Thus the mutual25 resentments26 and interests of the king and the abbot concurred27 to subject the earl to the penalties of outlawry, by which the abbot would gain his due upon the lands of Locksley, and the rest would be confiscate28 to the king. Still the king did not think it advisable to assail29 the earl in his own strong-hold, but caused a diligent30 watch to be kept over his motions, till at length his rumoured31 marriage with the heiress of Arlingford seemed to point out an easy method of laying violent hands on the offender32. Sir Ralph Montfaucon, a young man of good lineage and of an aspiring33 temper, who readily seized the first opportunity that offered of recommending himself to King Henry’s favour by manifesting his zeal34 in his service, undertook the charge: and how he succeeded we have seen.
Sir Ralph’s curiosity was strongly excited by the friar’s description of the young lady of Arlingford; and he prepared in the morning to visit the castle, under the very plausible35 pretext36 of giving the baron37 an explanation of his intervention38 at the nuptials39. Brother Michael and the little fat friar proposed to be his guides. The proposal was courteously40 accepted, and they set out together, leaving Sir Ralph’s followers41 at the abbey. The knight42 was mounted on a spirited charger; brother Michael on a large heavy-trotting horse; and the little fat friar on a plump soft-paced galloway, so correspondent with himself in size, rotundity, and sleekness43, that if they had been amalgamated44 into a centaur45, there would have been nothing to alter in their proportions.
“Do you know,” said the little friar, as they wound along the banks of the stream, “the reason why lake-trout46 is better than river-trout, and shyer withal?”
“I was not aware of the fact,” said Sir Ralph.
“A most heterodox remark,” said brother Michael: “know you not, that in all nice matters you should take the implication for absolute, and, without looking into the FACT WHETHER, seek only the reason why? But the fact is so, on the word of a friar; which what layman47 will venture to gainsay48 who prefers a down bed to a gridiron?”
“The fact being so,” said the knight, “I am still at a loss for the reason; nor would I undertake to opine in a matter of that magnitude: since, in all that appertains to the good things either of this world or the next, my reverend spiritual guides are kind enough to take the trouble of thinking off my hands.”
“Spoken,” said brother Michael, “with a sound Catholic conscience. My little brother here is most profound in the matter of trout. He has marked, learned, and inwardly digested the subject, twice a week at least for five-and-thirty years. I yield to him in this. My strong points are venison and canary.”
“The good qualities of a trout,” said the little friar, “are firmness and redness: the redness, indeed, being the visible sign of all other virtues49.”
“Whence,” said brother Michael, “we choose our abbot by his nose:
The rose on the nose doth all virtues disclose: For the outward grace shows That the inward overflows50, When it glows in the rose of a red, red nose.”
“Now,” said the little friar, “as is the firmness so is the redness, and as is the redness so is the shyness.”
“Marry why?” said brother Michael. “The solution is not physical-natural, but physical-historical, or natural-superinductive. And thereby51 hangs a tale, which may be either said or sung:
The damsel stood to watch the fight
By the banks of Kingslea Mere52,
And they brought to her feet her own true knight
Sore-wounded on a bier.
She knelt by him his wounds to bind53,
She washed them with many a tear:
And shouts rose fast upon the wind,
Which told that the foe54 was near.
“Oh! let not,” he said, “while yet I live,
The cruel foe me take:
But with thy sweet lips a last kiss give,
And cast me in the lake.”
Around his neck she wound her arms,
And she kissed his lips so pale:
And evermore the war’s alarms
Came louder up the vale.
She drew him to the lake’s steep side,
Where the red heath fringed the shore;
She plunged55 with him beneath the tide,
And they were seen no more.
Their true blood mingled56 in Kingslea Mere,
That to mingle57 on earth was fain:
And the trout that swims in that crystal clear
Is tinged58 with the crimson59 stain.
“Thus you see how good comes of evil, and how a holy friar may fare better on fast-day for the violent death of two lovers two hundred years ago. The inference is most consecutive60, that wherever you catch a red-fleshed trout, love lies bleeding under the water: an occult quality, which can only act in the stationary61 waters of a lake, being neutralised by the rapid transition of those of a stream.”
“And why is the trout shyer for that?” asked Sir Ralph.
“Do you not see?” said brother Michael. “The virtues of both lovers diffuse62 themselves through the lake. The infusion63 of masculine valour makes the fish active and sanguineous: the infusion of maiden64 modesty65 makes him coy and hard to win: and you shall find through life, the fish which is most easily hooked is not the best worth dishing. But yonder are the towers of Arlingford.”
The little friar stopped. He seemed suddenly struck with an awful thought, which caused a momentary66 pallescence in his rosy67 complexion68; and after a brief hesitation69, he turned his galloway, and told his companions he should give them good day.
“Why, what is in the wind now, brother Peter?” said Friar Michael.
“The lady Matilda,” said the little friar, “can draw the long-bow. She must bear no goodwill70 to Sir Ralph; and if she should espy71 him from her tower, she may testify her recognition with a cloth-yard shaft72. She is not so infallible a markswoman, but that she might shoot at a crow and kill a pigeon. She might peradventure miss the knight, and hit me, who never did her any harm.”
“Tut, tut, man,” said brother Michael, “there is no such fear.”
“Mass,” said the little friar, “but there is such a fear, and very strong too. You who have it not may keep your way, and I who have it shall take mine. I am not just now in the vein73 for being picked off at a long shot.” And saying these words, he spurred up his four-footed better half, and galloped74 off as nimbly as if he had had an arrow singing behind him.
“Is this lady Matilda, then, so very terrible a damsel?” said Sir Ralph to brother Michael.
“By no means,” said the friar. “She has certainly a high spirit; but it is the wing of the eagle, without his beak75 or his claw. She is as gentle as magnanimous; but it is the gentleness of the summer wind, which, however lightly it wave the tuft of the pine, carries with it the intimation of a power, that, if roused to its extremity76, could make it bend to the dust.”
“From the warmth of your panegyric77, ghostly father,” said the knight, “I should almost suspect you were in love with the damsel.”
“So I am,” said the friar, “and I care not who knows it; but all in the way of honesty, master soldier. I am, as it were, her spiritual lover; and were she a damsel errant, I would be her ghostly esquire, her friar militant78. I would buckle79 me in armour80 of proof, and the devil might thresh me black with an iron flail81, before I would knock under in her cause. Though they be not yet one canonically82, thanks to your soldiership, the earl is her liege lord, and she is his liege lady. I am her father confessor and ghostly director: I have taken on me to show her the way to the next world; and how can I do that if I lose sight of her in this? seeing that this is but the road to the other, and has so many circumvolutions and ramifications83 of byeways and beaten paths (all more thickly set than the true one with finger-posts and milestones84, not one of which tells truth), that a traveller has need of some one who knows the way, or the odds85 go hard against him that he will ever see the face of Saint Peter.”
“But there must surely be some reason,” said Sir Ralph, “for father Peter’s apprehension86.”
“None,” said brother Michael, “but the apprehension itself; fear being its own father, and most prolific87 in self-propagation. The lady did, it is true, once signalize her displeasure against our little brother, for reprimanding her in that she would go hunting a-mornings instead of attending matins. She cut short the thread of his eloquence88 by sportively drawing her bow-string and loosing an arrow over his head; he waddled89 off with singular speed, and was in much awe90 of her for many months. I thought he had forgotten it: but let that pass. In truth, she would have had little of her lover’s company, if she had liked the chaunt of the choristers better than the cry of the hounds: yet I know not; for they were companions from the cradle, and reciprocally fashioned each other to the love of the fern and the foxglove. Had either been less sylvan91, the other might have been more saintly; but they will now never hear matins but those of the lark92, nor reverence93 vaulted94 aisle95 but that of the greenwood canopy96. They are twin plants of the forest, and are identified with its growth.
For the slender beech97 and the sapling oak,
That grow by the shadowy rill,
You may cut down both at a single stroke,
You may cut down which you will.
But this you must know, that as long as they grow
Whatever change may be,
You never can teach either oak or beech
To be aught but a greenwood tree.”
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1
passionately
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| ad.热烈地，激烈地 | |
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2
infancy
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| n.婴儿期；幼年期；初期 | |
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3
memorable
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| adj.值得回忆的，难忘的，特别的，显著的 | |
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4
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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6
prerogative
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| n.特权 | |
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7
remonstrances
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| n.抱怨，抗议( remonstrance的名词复数 ) | |
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8
rue
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| n.懊悔，芸香，后悔；v.后悔，悲伤，懊悔 | |
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9
vassals
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| n.奴仆( vassal的名词复数 )；（封建时代）诸侯；从属者；下属 | |
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10
mandate
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| n.托管地；命令，指示 | |
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11
resolute
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| adj.坚决的，果敢的 | |
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12
sundry
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| adj.各式各样的，种种的 | |
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bishops
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| （基督教某些教派管辖大教区的）主教( bishop的名词复数 )； （国际象棋的）象 | |
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14
scrupulous
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| adj.审慎的，小心翼翼的，完全的，纯粹的 | |
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15
profane
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| adj.亵神的，亵渎的；vt.亵渎，玷污 | |
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16
pious
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| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
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17
blessing
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| n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿 | |
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18
frail
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| adj.身体虚弱的；易损坏的 | |
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19
attachment
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| n.附属物，附件；依恋；依附 | |
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20
stoutly
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| adv.牢固地，粗壮的 | |
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21
forfeiture
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| n.（名誉等）丧失 | |
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22
outlawry
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| 宣布非法，非法化，放逐 | |
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23
bankruptcy
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| n.破产；无偿付能力 | |
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24
creditor
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| n.债仅人，债主，贷方 | |
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25
mutual
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| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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26
resentments
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| （因受虐待而）愤恨，不满，怨恨( resentment的名词复数 ) | |
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27
concurred
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| 同意（concur的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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28
confiscate
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| v.没收(私人财产)，把…充公 | |
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29
assail
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| v.猛烈攻击，抨击，痛斥 | |
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30
diligent
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| adj.勤勉的，勤奋的 | |
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31
rumoured
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| adj.谣传的；传说的；风 | |
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32
offender
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| n.冒犯者，违反者，犯罪者 | |
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33
aspiring
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| adj.有志气的；有抱负的；高耸的v.渴望；追求 | |
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34
zeal
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| n.热心，热情，热忱 | |
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35
plausible
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| adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的 | |
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36
pretext
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| n.借口，托词 | |
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37
baron
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| n.男爵；(商业界等)巨头，大王 | |
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38
intervention
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| n.介入，干涉，干预 | |
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39
nuptials
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| n.婚礼；婚礼( nuptial的名词复数 ) | |
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40
courteously
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| adv.有礼貌地，亲切地 | |
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41
followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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42
knight
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| n.骑士，武士；爵士 | |
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43
sleekness
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| 油滑； 油光发亮； 时髦阔气； 线条明快 | |
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44
amalgamated
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| v.（使）（金属）汞齐化( amalgamate的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）合并；联合；结合 | |
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45
centaur
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| n.人首马身的怪物 | |
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46
trout
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| n.鳟鱼；鲑鱼(属) | |
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47
layman
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| n.俗人，门外汉，凡人 | |
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48
gainsay
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| v.否认，反驳 | |
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49
virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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50
overflows
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| v.溢出，淹没( overflow的第三人称单数 )；充满；挤满了人；扩展出界，过度延伸 | |
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51
thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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52
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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53
bind
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| vt.捆，包扎；装订；约束；使凝固；vi.变硬 | |
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54
foe
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| n.敌人，仇敌 | |
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55
plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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56
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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57
mingle
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| vt.使混合，使相混；vi.混合起来；相交往 | |
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58
tinged
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| v.（使）发丁丁声( ting的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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59
crimson
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| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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60
consecutive
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| adj.连续的，联贯的，始终一贯的 | |
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61
stationary
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| adj.固定的，静止不动的 | |
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62
diffuse
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| v.扩散；传播；adj.冗长的；四散的，弥漫的 | |
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63
infusion
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| n.灌输 | |
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64
maiden
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| n.少女，处女；adj.未婚的，纯洁的，无经验的 | |
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65
modesty
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| n.谦逊，虚心，端庄，稳重，羞怯，朴素 | |
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66
momentary
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| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
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67
rosy
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| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
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68
complexion
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| n.肤色；情况，局面；气质，性格 | |
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69
hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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70
goodwill
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| n.善意，亲善，信誉，声誉 | |
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71
espy
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| v.（从远处等）突然看到 | |
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72
shaft
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| n.(工具的)柄，杆状物 | |
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73
vein
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| n.血管，静脉；叶脉，纹理；情绪；vt.使成脉络 | |
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74
galloped
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| （使马）飞奔，奔驰( gallop的过去式和过去分词 )； 快速做[说]某事 | |
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75
beak
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| n.鸟嘴，茶壶嘴，钩形鼻 | |
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76
extremity
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| n.末端，尽头；尽力；终极；极度 | |
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77
panegyric
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| n.颂词，颂扬 | |
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78
militant
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| adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士 | |
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79
buckle
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| n.扣子，带扣；v.把...扣住，由于压力而弯曲 | |
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80
armour
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| （=armor）n.盔甲；装甲部队 | |
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81
flail
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| v.用连枷打；击打；n.连枷（脱粒用的工具） | |
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82
canonically
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| adv.照宗规地，宗规上地 | |
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83
ramifications
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| n.结果，后果( ramification的名词复数 ) | |
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84
milestones
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| n.重要事件( milestone的名词复数 )；重要阶段；转折点；里程碑 | |
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85
odds
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| n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别 | |
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86
apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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87
prolific
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| adj.丰富的，大量的；多产的，富有创造力的 | |
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88
eloquence
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| n.雄辩；口才，修辞 | |
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89
waddled
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| v.（像鸭子一样）摇摇摆摆地走( waddle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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90
awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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91
sylvan
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| adj.森林的 | |
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92
lark
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| n.云雀，百灵鸟；n.嬉戏，玩笑；vi.嬉戏 | |
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93
reverence
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| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
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94
vaulted
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| adj.拱状的 | |
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95
aisle
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| n.（教堂、教室、戏院等里的）过道，通道 | |
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96
canopy
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| n.天篷，遮篷 | |
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97
beech
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| n.山毛榉；adj.山毛榉的 | |
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