How Panurge patrocinates and defendeth the Order of the Begging Friars.
Panurge, at his issuing forth1 of Raminagrobis’s chamber2, said, as if he had been horribly affrighted, By the virtue3 of God, I believe that he is an heretic; the devil take me, if I do not! he doth so villainously rail at the Mendicant5 Friars and Jacobins, who are the two hemispheres of the Christian6 world; by whose gyronomonic circumbilvaginations, as by two celivagous filopendulums, all the autonomatic metagrobolism of the Romish Church, when tottering7 and emblustricated with the gibble-gabble gibberish of this odious8 error and heresy9, is homocentrically poised10. But what harm, in the devil’s name, have these poor devils the Capuchins and Minims done unto him? Are not these beggarly devils sufficiently11 wretched already? Who can imagine that these poor snakes, the very extracts of ichthyophagy, are not thoroughly12 enough besmoked and besmeared with misery13, distress14, and calamity15? Dost thou think, Friar John, by thy faith, that he is in the state of salvation16? He goeth, before God, as surely damned to thirty thousand basketsful of devils as a pruning-bill to the lopping of a vine-branch. To revile17 with opprobrious18 speeches the good and courageous19 props20 and pillars of the Church,— is that to be called a poetical21 fury? I cannot rest satisfied with him; he sinneth grossly, and blasphemeth against the true religion. I am very much offended at his scandalizing words and contumelious obloquy22. I do not care a straw, quoth Friar John, for what he hath said; for although everybody should twit and jerk them, it were but a just retaliation23, seeing all persons are served by them with the like sauce: therefore do I pretend no interest therein. Let us see, nevertheless, what he hath written. Panurge very attentively24 read the paper which the old man had penned; then said to his two fellow-travellers, The poor drinker doteth. Howsoever, I excuse him, for that I believe he is now drawing near to the end and final closure of his life. Let us go make his epitaph. By the answer which he hath given us, I am not, I protest, one jot25 wiser than I was. Hearken here, Epistemon, my little bully26, dost not thou hold him to be very resolute27 in his responsory verdicts? He is a witty28, quick, and subtle sophister. I will lay an even wager29 that he is a miscreant30 apostate31. By the belly32 of a stalled ox, how careful he is not to be mistaken in his words. He answered but by disjunctives, therefore can it not be true which he saith; for the verity33 of such-like propositions is inherent only in one of its two members. O the cozening prattler34 that he is! I wonder if Santiago of Bressure be one of these cogging shirks. Such was of old, quoth Epistemon, the custom of the grand vaticinator and prophet Tiresias, who used always, by way of a preface, to say openly and plainly at the beginning of his divinations and predictions that what he was to tell would either come to pass or not. And such is truly the style of all prudently35 presaging36 prognosticators. He was nevertheless, quoth Panurge, so unfortunately misadventurous in the lot of his own destiny, that Juno thrust out both his eyes.
Yes, answered Epistemon, and that merely out of a spite and spleen for having pronounced his award more veritable than she, upon the question which was merrily proposed by Jupiter. But, quoth Panurge, what archdevil is it that hath possessed37 this Master Raminagrobis, that so unreasonably38, and without any occasion, he should have so snappishly and bitterly inveighed39 against these poor honest fathers, Jacobins, Minors40, and Minims? It vexeth me grievously, I assure you; nor am I able to conceal41 my indignation. He hath transgressed42 most enormously; his soul goeth infallibly to thirty thousand panniersful of devils. I understand you not, quoth Epistemon, and it disliketh me very much that you should so absurdly and perversely43 interpret that of the Friar Mendicants which by the harmless poet was spoken of black beasts, dun, and other sorts of other coloured animals. He is not in my opinion guilty of such a sophistical and fantastic allegory as by that phrase of his to have meant the Begging Brothers. He in downright terms speaketh absolutely and properly of fleas44, punies, hand worms, flies, gnats45, and other such-like scurvy46 vermin, whereof some are black, some dun, some ash-coloured, some tawny47, and some brown and dusky, all noisome48, molesting49, tyrannous, cumbersome50, and unpleasant creatures, not only to sick and diseased folks, but to those also who are of a sound, vigorous, and healthful temperament51 and constitution. It is not unlikely that he may have the ascarids, and the lumbrics, and worms within the entrails of his body. Possibly doth he suffer, as it is frequent and usual amongst the Egyptians, together with all those who inhabit the Erythraean confines, and dwell along the shores and coasts of the Red Sea, some sour prickings and smart stingings in his arms and legs of those little speckled dragons which the Arabians call meden. You are to blame for offering to expound52 his words otherwise, and wrong the ingenuous53 poet, and outrageously54 abuse and miscall the said fraters, by an imputation55 of baseness undeservedly laid to their charge. We still should, in such like discourses56 of fatiloquent soothsayers, interpret all things to the best. Will you teach me, quoth Panurge, how to discern flies among milk, or show your father the way how to beget57 children? He is, by the virtue of God, an arrant58 heretic, a resolute, formal heretic; I say, a rooted, combustible59 heretic, one as fit to burn as the little wooden clock at Rochelle. His soul goeth to thirty thousand cartsful of devils. Would you know whither? Cocks-body, my friend, straight under Proserpina’s close-stool, to the very middle of the self-same infernal pan within which she, by an excrementitious evacuation, voideth the faecal stuff of her stinking60 clysters, and that just upon the left side of the great cauldron of three fathom61 height, hard by the claws and talons62 of Lucifer, in the very darkest of the passage which leadeth towards the black chamber of Demogorgon. O the villain4!
1 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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2 chamber | |
n.房间,寝室;会议厅;议院;会所 | |
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3 virtue | |
n.德行,美德;贞操;优点;功效,效力 | |
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4 villain | |
n.反派演员,反面人物;恶棍;问题的起因 | |
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5 mendicant | |
n.乞丐;adj.行乞的 | |
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6 Christian | |
adj.基督教徒的;n.基督教徒 | |
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7 tottering | |
adj.蹒跚的,动摇的v.走得或动得不稳( totter的现在分词 );踉跄;蹒跚;摇摇欲坠 | |
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8 odious | |
adj.可憎的,讨厌的 | |
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9 heresy | |
n.异端邪说;异教 | |
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10 poised | |
a.摆好姿势不动的 | |
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11 sufficiently | |
adv.足够地,充分地 | |
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12 thoroughly | |
adv.完全地,彻底地,十足地 | |
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13 misery | |
n.痛苦,苦恼,苦难;悲惨的境遇,贫苦 | |
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14 distress | |
n.苦恼,痛苦,不舒适;不幸;vt.使悲痛 | |
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15 calamity | |
n.灾害,祸患,不幸事件 | |
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16 salvation | |
n.(尤指基督)救世,超度,拯救,解困 | |
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17 revile | |
v.辱骂,谩骂 | |
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18 opprobrious | |
adj.可耻的,辱骂的 | |
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19 courageous | |
adj.勇敢的,有胆量的 | |
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20 props | |
小道具; 支柱( prop的名词复数 ); 支持者; 道具; (橄榄球中的)支柱前锋 | |
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21 poetical | |
adj.似诗人的;诗一般的;韵文的;富有诗意的 | |
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22 obloquy | |
n.斥责,大骂 | |
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23 retaliation | |
n.报复,反击 | |
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24 attentively | |
adv.聚精会神地;周到地;谛;凝神 | |
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25 jot | |
n.少量;vi.草草记下;vt.匆匆写下 | |
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26 bully | |
n.恃强欺弱者,小流氓;vt.威胁,欺侮 | |
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27 resolute | |
adj.坚决的,果敢的 | |
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28 witty | |
adj.机智的,风趣的 | |
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29 wager | |
n.赌注;vt.押注,打赌 | |
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30 miscreant | |
n.恶棍 | |
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31 apostate | |
n.背叛者,变节者 | |
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32 belly | |
n.肚子,腹部;(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分,膛 | |
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33 verity | |
n.真实性 | |
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34 prattler | |
n.空谈者 | |
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35 prudently | |
adv. 谨慎地,慎重地 | |
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36 presaging | |
v.预示,预兆( presage的现在分词 ) | |
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37 possessed | |
adj.疯狂的;拥有的,占有的 | |
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38 unreasonably | |
adv. 不合理地 | |
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39 inveighed | |
v.猛烈抨击,痛骂,谩骂( inveigh的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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40 minors | |
n.未成年人( minor的名词复数 );副修科目;小公司;[逻辑学]小前提v.[主美国英语]副修,选修,兼修( minor的第三人称单数 ) | |
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41 conceal | |
v.隐藏,隐瞒,隐蔽 | |
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42 transgressed | |
v.超越( transgress的过去式和过去分词 );越过;违反;违背 | |
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43 perversely | |
adv. 倔强地 | |
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44 fleas | |
n.跳蚤( flea的名词复数 );爱财如命;没好气地(拒绝某人的要求) | |
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45 gnats | |
n.叮人小虫( gnat的名词复数 ) | |
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46 scurvy | |
adj.下流的,卑鄙的,无礼的;n.坏血病 | |
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47 tawny | |
adj.茶色的,黄褐色的;n.黄褐色 | |
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48 noisome | |
adj.有害的,可厌的 | |
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49 molesting | |
v.骚扰( molest的现在分词 );干扰;调戏;猥亵 | |
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50 cumbersome | |
adj.笨重的,不便携带的 | |
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51 temperament | |
n.气质,性格,性情 | |
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52 expound | |
v.详述;解释;阐述 | |
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53 ingenuous | |
adj.纯朴的,单纯的;天真的;坦率的 | |
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54 outrageously | |
凶残地; 肆无忌惮地; 令人不能容忍地; 不寻常地 | |
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55 imputation | |
n.归罪,责难 | |
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56 discourses | |
论文( discourse的名词复数 ); 演说; 讲道; 话语 | |
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57 beget | |
v.引起;产生 | |
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58 arrant | |
adj.极端的;最大的 | |
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59 combustible | |
a. 易燃的,可燃的; n. 易燃物,可燃物 | |
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60 stinking | |
adj.臭的,烂醉的,讨厌的v.散发出恶臭( stink的现在分词 );发臭味;名声臭;糟透 | |
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61 fathom | |
v.领悟,彻底了解 | |
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62 talons | |
n.(尤指猛禽的)爪( talon的名词复数 );(如爪般的)手指;爪状物;锁簧尖状突出部 | |
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