How Gargantua spent his time in rainy weather.
If it happened that the weather were anything cloudy, foul1, and rainy, all the forenoon was employed, as before specified2, according to custom, with this difference only, that they had a good clear fire lighted to correct the distempers of the air. But after dinner, instead of their wonted exercitations, they did abide3 within, and, by way of apotherapy (that is, a making the body healthful by exercise), did recreate themselves in bottling up of hay, in cleaving4 and sawing of wood, and in threshing sheaves of corn at the barn. Then they studied the art of painting or carving5; or brought into use the antique play of tables, as Leonicus hath written of it, and as our good friend Lascaris playeth at it. In playing they examined the passages of ancient authors wherein the said play is mentioned or any metaphor6 drawn7 from it. They went likewise to see the drawing of metals, or the casting of great ordnance8; how the lapidaries9 did work; as also the goldsmiths and cutters of precious stones. Nor did they omit to visit the alchemists, money-coiners, upholsterers, weavers10, velvet-workers, watchmakers, looking-glass framers, printers, organists, and other such kind of artificers, and, everywhere giving them somewhat to drink, did learn and consider the industry and invention of the trades. They went also to hear the public lectures, the solemn commencements, the repetitions, the acclamations, the pleadings of the gentle lawyers, and sermons of evangelical preachers. He went through the halls and places appointed for fencing, and there played against the masters themselves at all weapons, and showed them by experience that he knew as much in it as, yea, more than, they. And, instead of herborizing, they visited the shops of druggists, herbalists, and apothecaries11, and diligently12 considered the fruits, roots, leaves, gums, seeds, the grease and ointments13 of some foreign parts, as also how they did adulterate them. He went to see the jugglers, tumblers, mountebanks, and quacksalvers, and considered their cunning, their shifts, their somersaults and smooth tongue, especially of those of Chauny in Picardy, who are naturally great praters, and brave givers of fibs, in matter of green apes.
At their return they did eat more soberly at supper than at other times, and meats more desiccative and extenuating14; to the end that the intemperate15 moisture of the air, communicated to the body by a necessary confinitive, might by this means be corrected, and that they might not receive any prejudice for want of their ordinary bodily exercise. Thus was Gargantua governed, and kept on in this course of education, from day to day profiting, as you may understand such a young man of his age may, of a pregnant judgment16, with good discipline well continued. Which, although at the beginning it seemed difficult, became a little after so sweet, so easy, and so delightful17, that it seemed rather the recreation of a king than the study of a scholar. Nevertheless Ponocrates, to divert him from this vehement18 intension of the spirits, thought fit, once in a month, upon some fair and clear day, to go out of the city betimes in the morning, either towards Gentilly, or Boulogne, or to Montrouge, or Charanton bridge, or to Vanves, or St. Clou, and there spend all the day long in making the greatest cheer that could be devised, sporting, making merry, drinking healths, playing, singing, dancing, tumbling in some fair meadow, unnestling of sparrows, taking of quails19, and fishing for frogs and crabs20. But although that day was passed without books or lecture, yet was it not spent without profit; for in the said meadows they usually repeated certain pleasant verses of Virgil’s agriculture, of Hesiod and of Politian’s husbandry, would set a-broach some witty21 Latin epigrams, then immediately turned them into roundelays and songs for dancing in the French language. In their feasting they would sometimes separate the water from the wine that was therewith mixed, as Cato teacheth, De re rustica, and Pliny with an ivy22 cup would wash the wine in a basinful of water, then take it out again with a funnel23 as pure as ever. They made the water go from one glass to another, and contrived24 a thousand little automatory engines, that is to say, moving of themselves.
1 foul | |
adj.污秽的;邪恶的;v.弄脏;妨害;犯规;n.犯规 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
2 specified | |
adj.特定的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
3 abide | |
vi.遵守;坚持;vt.忍受 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
4 cleaving | |
v.劈开,剁开,割开( cleave的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
5 carving | |
n.雕刻品,雕花 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
6 metaphor | |
n.隐喻,暗喻 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
7 drawn | |
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
8 ordnance | |
n.大炮,军械 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
9 lapidaries | |
n.宝石匠,玉石雕刻师( lapidary的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
10 weavers | |
织工,编织者( weaver的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
11 apothecaries | |
n.药剂师,药店( apothecary的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
12 diligently | |
ad.industriously;carefully | |
参考例句: |
|
|
13 ointments | |
n.软膏( ointment的名词复数 );扫兴的人;煞风景的事物;药膏 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
14 extenuating | |
adj.使减轻的,情有可原的v.(用偏袒的辩解或借口)减轻( extenuate的现在分词 );低估,藐视 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
15 intemperate | |
adj.无节制的,放纵的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
16 judgment | |
n.审判;判断力,识别力,看法,意见 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
17 delightful | |
adj.令人高兴的,使人快乐的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
18 vehement | |
adj.感情强烈的;热烈的;(人)有强烈感情的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
19 quails | |
鹌鹑( quail的名词复数 ); 鹌鹑肉 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
20 crabs | |
n.蟹( crab的名词复数 );阴虱寄生病;蟹肉v.捕蟹( crab的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
21 witty | |
adj.机智的,风趣的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
22 ivy | |
n.常青藤,常春藤 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
23 funnel | |
n.漏斗;烟囱;v.汇集 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
24 contrived | |
adj.不自然的,做作的;虚构的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
欢迎访问英文小说网 |