How Epistemon, who had his head cut off, was finely healed by Panurge, and of the news which he brought from the devils, and of the damned people in hell.
This gigantal victory being ended, Pantagruel withdrew himself to the place of the flagons, and called for Panurge and the rest, who came unto him safe and sound, except Eusthenes, whom one of the giants had scratched a little in the face whilst he was about the cutting of his throat, and Epistemon, who appeared not at all. Whereat Pantagruel was so aggrieved2 that he would have killed himself. But Panurge said unto him, Nay3, sir, stay a while, and we will search for him amongst the dead, and find out the truth of all. Thus as they went seeking after him, they found him stark4 dead, with his head between his arms all bloody5. Then Eusthenes cried out, Ah, cruel death! hast thou taken from me the perfectest amongst men? At which words Pantagruel rose up with the greatest grief that ever any man did see, and said to Panurge, Ha, my friend! the prophecy of your two glasses and the javelin6 staff was a great deal too deceitful. But Panurge answered, My dear bullies7 all, weep not one drop more, for, he being yet all hot, I will make him as sound as ever he was. In saying this, he took the head and held it warm foregainst his codpiece, that the wind might not enter into it. Eusthenes and Carpalin carried the body to the place where they had banqueted, not out of any hope that ever he would recover, but that Pantagruel might see it.
Nevertheless Panurge gave him very good comfort, saying, If I do not heal him, I will be content to lose my head, which is a fool’s wager8. Leave off, therefore, crying, and help me. Then cleansed9 he his neck very well with pure white wine, and, after that, took his head, and into it synapised some powder of diamerdis, which he always carried about him in one of his bags. Afterwards he anointed it with I know not what ointment10, and set it on very just, vein11 against vein, sinew against sinew, and spondyle against spondyle, that he might not be wry-necked — for such people he mortally hated. This done, he gave it round about some fifteen or sixteen stitches with a needle that it might not fall off again; then, on all sides and everywhere, he put a little ointment on it, which he called resuscitative12.
Suddenly Epistemon began to breathe, then opened his eyes, yawned, sneezed, and afterwards let a great household fart. Whereupon Panurge said, Now, certainly, he is healed,— and therefore gave him to drink a large full glass of strong white wine, with a sugared toast. In this fashion was Epistemon finely healed, only that he was somewhat hoarse13 for above three weeks together, and had a dry cough of which he could not be rid but by the force of continual drinking. And now he began to speak, and said that he had seen the devil, had spoken with Lucifer familiarly, and had been very merry in hell and in the Elysian fields, affirming very seriously before them all that the devils were boon16 companions and merry fellows. But, in respect of the damned, he said he was very sorry that Panurge had so soon called him back into this world again; for, said he, I took wonderful delight to see them. How so? said Pantagruel. Because they do not use them there, said Epistemon, so badly as you think they do. Their estate and condition of living is but only changed after a very strange manner; for I saw Alexander the Great there amending17 and patching on clouts18 upon old breeches and stockings, whereby he got but a very poor living.
Xerxes was a crier of mustard.
Romulus, a salter and patcher of pattens.
Numa, a nailsmith.
Tarquin, a porter.
Piso, a clownish swain.
Sylla, a ferryman.
Cyrus, a cowherd.
Themistocles, a glass-maker19.
Epaminondas, a maker of mirrors or looking-glasses.
Brutus and Cassius, surveyors or measurers of land.
Demosthenes, a vine-dresser.
Cicero, a fire-kindler.
Fabius, a threader of beads20.
Artaxerxes, a rope-maker.
Aeneas, a miller21.
Achilles was a scaldpated maker of hay-bundles.
Agamemnon, a lick-box.
Ulysses, a hay-mower.
Nestor, a door-keeper or forester.
Darius, a gold-finder or jakes-farmer.
Ancus Martius, a ship-trimmer.
Camillus, a foot-post.
Marcellus, a sheller of beans.
Drusus, a taker of money at the doors of playhouses.
Scipio Africanus, a crier of lee in a wooden slipper22.
Asdrubal, a lantern-maker.
Hannibal, a kettlemaker and seller of eggshells.
Priamus, a seller of old clouts.
Lancelot of the Lake was a flayer23 of dead horses.
All the Knights24 of the Round Table were poor day-labourers, employed to row over the rivers of Cocytus, Phlegeton, Styx, Acheron, and Lethe, when my lords the devils had a mind to recreate themselves upon the water, as in the like occasion are hired the boatmen at Lyons, the gondoliers of Venice, and oars14 at London. But with this difference, that these poor knights have only for their fare a bob or flirt25 on the nose, and in the evening a morsel26 of coarse mouldy bread.
Trajan was a fisher of frogs.
Antoninus, a lackey27.
Commodus, a jet-maker.
Pertinax, a peeler of walnuts28.
Lucullus, a maker of rattles29 and hawks’-bells.
Justinian, a pedlar.
Hector, a snap-sauce scullion.
Paris was a poor beggar.
Cambyses, a mule-driver.
Nero, a base blind fiddler, or player on that instrument which is called a windbroach. Fierabras was his serving-man, who did him a thousand mischievous30 tricks, and would make him eat of the brown bread and drink of the turned wine when himself did both eat and drink of the best.
Julius Caesar and Pompey were boat-wrights and tighters of ships.
Valentine and Orson did serve in the stoves of hell, and were sweat-rubbers in hot houses.
Giglan and Govian (Gauvin) were poor swineherds.
Geoffrey with the great tooth was a tinder-maker and seller of matches.
Godfrey de Bouillon, a hood-maker.
Jason was a bracelet-maker.
Don Pietro de Castille, a carrier of indulgences.
Morgan, a beer-brewer.
Huon of Bordeaux, a hooper of barrels.
Pyrrhus, a kitchen-scullion.
Antiochus, a chimney-sweeper.
Octavian, a scraper of parchment.
Nerva, a mariner31.
Pope Julius was a crier of pudding-pies, but he left off wearing there his great buggerly beard.
John of Paris was a greaser of boots.
Arthur of Britain, an ungreaser of caps.
Perce-Forest, a carrier of faggots.
Pope Boniface the Eighth, a scummer of pots.
Pope Nicholas the Third, a maker of paper.
Pope Alexander, a ratcatcher.
Pope Sixtus, an anointer of those that have the pox.
What, said Pantagruel, have they the pox there too? Surely, said Epistemon, I never saw so many: there are there, I think, above a hundred millions; for believe, that those who have not had the pox in this world must have it in the other.
Cotsbody, said Panurge, then I am free; for I have been as far as the hole of Gibraltar, reached unto the outmost bounds of Hercules, and gathered of the ripest.
Ogier the Dane was a furbisher of armour32.
The King Tigranes, a mender of thatched houses.
Galien Restored, a taker of moldwarps.
The four sons of Aymon were all toothdrawers.
Pope Calixtus was a barber of a woman’s sine qua non.
Pope Urban, a bacon-picker.
Melusina was a kitchen drudge-wench.
Matabrune, a laundress.
Cleopatra, a crier of onions.
Helen, a broker33 for chambermaids.
Semiramis, the beggars’ lice-killer.
Dido did sell mushrooms.
Penthesilea sold cresses.
Lucretia was an alehouse-keeper.
Hortensia, a spinstress.
Livia, a grater of verdigris34.
After this manner, those that had been great lords and ladies here, got but a poor scurvy35 wretched living there below. And, on the contrary, the philosophers and others, who in this world had been altogether indigent36 and wanting, were great lords there in their turn. I saw Diogenes there strut37 it out most pompously38, and in great magnificence, with a rich purple gown on him, and a golden sceptre in his right hand. And, which is more, he would now and then make Alexander the Great mad, so enormously would he abuse him when he had not well patched his breeches; for he used to pay his skin with sound bastinadoes. I saw Epictetus there, most gallantly39 apparelled after the French fashion, sitting under a pleasant arbour, with store of handsome gentlewomen, frolicking, drinking, dancing, and making good cheer, with abundance of crowns of the sun. Above the lattice were written these verses for his device:
To leap and dance, to sport and play,
And drink good wine both white and brown,
Or nothing else do all the day
But tell bags full of many a crown.
When he saw me, he invited me to drink with him very courteously40, and I being willing to be entreated41, we tippled and chopined together most theologically. In the meantime came Cyrus to beg one farthing of him for the honour of Mercury, therewith to buy a few onions for his supper. No, no, said Epictetus, I do not use in my almsgiving to bestow42 farthings. Hold, thou varlet, there’s a crown for thee; be an honest man. Cyrus was exceeding glad to have met with such a booty; but the other poor rogues43, the kings that are there below, as Alexander, Darius, and others, stole it away from him by night. I saw Pathelin, the treasurer44 of Rhadamanthus, who, in cheapening the pudding-pies that Pope Julius cried, asked him how much a dozen. Three blanks, said the Pope. Nay, said Pathelin, three blows with a cudgel. Lay them down here, you rascal45, and go fetch more. The poor Pope went away weeping, who, when he came to his master, the pie-maker, told him that they had taken away his pudding-pies. Whereupon his master gave him such a sound lash46 with an eel-skin, that his own would have been worth nothing to make bag-pipe-bags of. I saw Master John Le Maire there personate the Pope in such fashion that he made all the poor kings and popes of this world kiss his feet, and, taking great state upon him, gave them his benediction47, saying, Get the pardons, rogues, get the pardons; they are good cheap. I absolve48 you of bread and pottage, and dispense49 with you to be never good for anything. Then, calling Caillet and Triboulet to him, he spoke15 these words, My lords the cardinals50, despatch51 their bulls, to wit, to each of them a blow with a cudgel upon the reins52. Which accordingly was forthwith performed. I heard Master Francis Villon ask Xerxes, How much the mess of mustard? A farthing, said Xerxes. To which the said Villon answered, The pox take thee for a villain53! As much of square-eared wheat is not worth half that price, and now thou offerest to enhance the price of victuals54. With this he pissed in his pot, as the mustard-makers of Paris used to do. I saw the trained bowman of the bathing tub, known by the name of the Francarcher de Baignolet, who, being one of the trustees of the Inquisition, when he saw Perce-Forest making water against a wall in which was painted the fire of St. Anthony, declared him heretic, and would have caused him to be burnt alive had it not been for Morgant, who, for his proficiat and other small fees, gave him nine tuns of beer.
Well, said Pantagruel, reserve all these fair stories for another time, only tell us how the usurers are there handled. I saw them, said Epistemon, all very busily employed in seeking of rusty55 pins and old nails in the kennels56 of the streets, as you see poor wretched rogues do in this world. But the quintal, or hundredweight, of this old ironware is there valued but at the price of a cantle of bread, and yet they have but a very bad despatch and riddance in the sale of it. Thus the poor misers57 are sometimes three whole weeks without eating one morsel or crumb58 of bread, and yet work both day and night, looking for the fair to come. Nevertheless, of all this labour, toil59, and misery60, they reckon nothing, so cursedly active they are in the prosecution61 of that their base calling, in hopes, at the end of the year, to earn some scurvy penny by it.
Come, said Pantagruel, let us now make ourselves merry one bout1, and drink, my lads, I beseech62 you, for it is very good drinking all this month. Then did they uncase their flagons by heaps and dozens, and with their leaguer-provision made excellent good cheer. But the poor King Anarchus could not all this while settle himself towards any fit of mirth; whereupon Panurge said, Of what trade shall we make my lord the king here, that he may be skilful63 in the art when he goes thither64 to sojourn65 amongst all the devils of hell? Indeed, said Pantagruel, that was well advised of thee. Do with him what thou wilt66, I give him to thee. Gramercy, said Panurge, the present is not to be refused, and I love it from you.
1 bout | |
n.侵袭,发作;一次(阵,回);拳击等比赛 | |
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2 aggrieved | |
adj.愤愤不平的,受委屈的;悲痛的;(在合法权利方面)受侵害的v.令委屈,令苦恼,侵害( aggrieve的过去式);令委屈,令苦恼,侵害( aggrieve的过去式和过去分词) | |
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3 nay | |
adv.不;n.反对票,投反对票者 | |
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4 stark | |
adj.荒凉的;严酷的;完全的;adv.完全地 | |
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5 bloody | |
adj.非常的的;流血的;残忍的;adv.很;vt.血染 | |
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6 javelin | |
n.标枪,投枪 | |
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7 bullies | |
n.欺凌弱小者, 开球 vt.恐吓, 威胁, 欺负 | |
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8 wager | |
n.赌注;vt.押注,打赌 | |
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9 cleansed | |
弄干净,清洗( cleanse的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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10 ointment | |
n.药膏,油膏,软膏 | |
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11 vein | |
n.血管,静脉;叶脉,纹理;情绪;vt.使成脉络 | |
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12 resuscitative | |
adj.使恢复知觉的;苏醒的;使复生的;使复兴的 | |
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13 hoarse | |
adj.嘶哑的,沙哑的 | |
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14 oars | |
n.桨,橹( oar的名词复数 );划手v.划(行)( oar的第三人称单数 ) | |
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15 spoke | |
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说 | |
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16 boon | |
n.恩赐,恩物,恩惠 | |
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17 amending | |
改良,修改,修订( amend的现在分词 ); 改良,修改,修订( amend的第三人称单数 )( amends的现在分词 ) | |
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18 clouts | |
n.猛打( clout的名词复数 );敲打;(尤指政治上的)影响;(用手或硬物的)击v.(尤指用手)猛击,重打( clout的第三人称单数 ) | |
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19 maker | |
n.制造者,制造商 | |
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20 beads | |
n.(空心)小珠子( bead的名词复数 );水珠;珠子项链 | |
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21 miller | |
n.磨坊主 | |
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22 slipper | |
n.拖鞋 | |
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23 flayer | |
剥皮者,抢劫者,痛责者 | |
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24 knights | |
骑士; (中古时代的)武士( knight的名词复数 ); 骑士; 爵士; (国际象棋中)马 | |
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25 flirt | |
v.调情,挑逗,调戏;n.调情者,卖俏者 | |
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26 morsel | |
n.一口,一点点 | |
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27 lackey | |
n.侍从;跟班 | |
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28 walnuts | |
胡桃(树)( walnut的名词复数 ); 胡桃木 | |
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29 rattles | |
(使)发出格格的响声, (使)作嘎嘎声( rattle的第三人称单数 ); 喋喋不休地说话; 迅速而嘎嘎作响地移动,堕下或走动; 使紧张,使恐惧 | |
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30 mischievous | |
adj.调皮的,恶作剧的,有害的,伤人的 | |
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31 mariner | |
n.水手号不载人航天探测器,海员,航海者 | |
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32 armour | |
(=armor)n.盔甲;装甲部队 | |
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33 broker | |
n.中间人,经纪人;v.作为中间人来安排 | |
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34 verdigris | |
n.铜锈;铜绿 | |
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35 scurvy | |
adj.下流的,卑鄙的,无礼的;n.坏血病 | |
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36 indigent | |
adj.贫穷的,贫困的 | |
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37 strut | |
v.肿胀,鼓起;大摇大摆地走;炫耀;支撑;撑开;n.高视阔步;支柱,撑杆 | |
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38 pompously | |
adv.傲慢地,盛大壮观地;大模大样 | |
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39 gallantly | |
adv. 漂亮地,勇敢地,献殷勤地 | |
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40 courteously | |
adv.有礼貌地,亲切地 | |
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41 entreated | |
恳求,乞求( entreat的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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42 bestow | |
v.把…赠与,把…授予;花费 | |
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43 rogues | |
n.流氓( rogue的名词复数 );无赖;调皮捣蛋的人;离群的野兽 | |
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44 treasurer | |
n.司库,财务主管 | |
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45 rascal | |
n.流氓;不诚实的人 | |
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46 lash | |
v.系牢;鞭打;猛烈抨击;n.鞭打;眼睫毛 | |
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47 benediction | |
n.祝福;恩赐 | |
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48 absolve | |
v.赦免,解除(责任等) | |
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49 dispense | |
vt.分配,分发;配(药),发(药);实施 | |
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50 cardinals | |
红衣主教( cardinal的名词复数 ); 红衣凤头鸟(见于北美,雄鸟为鲜红色); 基数 | |
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51 despatch | |
n./v.(dispatch)派遣;发送;n.急件;新闻报道 | |
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52 reins | |
感情,激情; 缰( rein的名词复数 ); 控制手段; 掌管; (成人带着幼儿走路以防其走失时用的)保护带 | |
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53 villain | |
n.反派演员,反面人物;恶棍;问题的起因 | |
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54 victuals | |
n.食物;食品 | |
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55 rusty | |
adj.生锈的;锈色的;荒废了的 | |
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56 kennels | |
n.主人外出时的小动物寄养处,养狗场;狗窝( kennel的名词复数 );养狗场 | |
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57 misers | |
守财奴,吝啬鬼( miser的名词复数 ) | |
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58 crumb | |
n.饼屑,面包屑,小量 | |
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59 toil | |
vi.辛劳工作,艰难地行动;n.苦工,难事 | |
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60 misery | |
n.痛苦,苦恼,苦难;悲惨的境遇,贫苦 | |
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61 prosecution | |
n.起诉,告发,检举,执行,经营 | |
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62 beseech | |
v.祈求,恳求 | |
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63 skilful | |
(=skillful)adj.灵巧的,熟练的 | |
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64 thither | |
adv.向那里;adj.在那边的,对岸的 | |
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65 sojourn | |
v./n.旅居,寄居;逗留 | |
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66 wilt | |
v.(使)植物凋谢或枯萎;(指人)疲倦,衰弱 | |
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