How Pantagruel and Panurge diversely interpret the words of Triboulet.
He says you are a fool. And what kind of fool? A mad fool, who in your old age would enslave yourself to the bondage1 of matrimony, and shut your pleasures up within a wedlock2 whose key some ruffian carries in his codpiece. He says furthermore, Beware of the monk3. Upon mine honour, it gives me in my mind that you will be cuckolded by a monk. Nay4, I will engage mine honour, which is the most precious pawn5 I could have in my possession although I were sole and peaceable dominator over all Europe, Asia, and Africa, that, if you marry, you will surely be one of the horned brotherhood6 of Vulcan. Hereby may you perceive how much I do attribute to the wise foolery of our morosoph Triboulet. The other oracles7 and responses did in the general prognosticate you a cuckold, without descending8 so near to the point of a particular determination as to pitch upon what vocation9 amongst the several sorts of men he should profess10 who is to be the copesmate of your wife and hornifier of your proper self. Thus noble Triboulet tells it us plainly, from whose words we may gather with all ease imaginable that your cuckoldry is to be infamous11, and so much the more scandalous that your conjugal12 bed will be incestuously contaminated with the filthiness13 of a monkery lecher. Moreover, he says that you will be the hornpipe of Buzansay, that is to say, well-horned, hornified, and cornuted. And, as Triboulet’s uncle asked from Louis the Twelfth, for a younger brother of his own who lived at Blois, the hornpipes of Buzansay, for the organ pipes, through the mistake of one word for another, even so, whilst you think to marry a wise, humble14, calm, discreet15, and honest wife, you shall unhappily stumble upon one witless, proud, loud, obstreperous16, bawling17, clamorous18, and more unpleasant than any Buzansay hornpipe. Consider withal how he flirted19 you on the nose with the bladder, and gave you a sound thumping20 blow with his fist upon the ridge21 of the back. This denotates and presageth that you shall be banged, beaten, and fillipped by her, and that also she will steal of your goods from you, as you stole the hog’s bladder from the little boys of Vaubreton.
Flat contrary, quoth Panurge;— not that I would impudently22 exempt23 myself from being a vassal24 in the territory of folly25. I hold of that jurisdiction26, and am subject thereto, I confess it. And why should I not? For the whole world is foolish. In the old Lorraine language, fou for tou, all and fool, were the same thing. Besides, it is avouched27 by Solomon that infinite is the number of fools. From an infinity28 nothing can be deducted29 or abated30, nor yet, by the testimony31 of Aristotle, can anything thereto be added or subjoined. Therefore were I a mad fool if, being a fool, I should not hold myself a fool. After the same manner of speaking, we may aver32 the number of the mad and enraged33 folks to be infinite. Avicenna maketh no bones to assert that the several kinds of madness are infinite. Though this much of Triboulet’s words tend little to my advantage, howbeit the prejudice which I sustain thereby34 be common with me to all other men, yet the rest of his talk and gesture maketh altogether for me. He said to my wife, Be wary35 of the monkey; that is as much as if she should be cheery, and take as much delight in a monkey as ever did the Lesbia of Catullus in her sparrow; who will for his recreation pass his time no less joyfully36 at the exercise of snatching flies than heretofore did the merciless fly-catcher Domitian. Withal he meant, by another part of his discourse37, that she should be of a jovial38 country-like humour, as gay and pleasing as a harmonious39 hornpipe of Saulieau or Buzansay. The veridical Triboulet did therein hint at what I liked well, as perfectly40 knowing the inclinations41 and propensions of my mind, my natural disposition42, and the bias43 of my interior passions and affections. For you may be assured that my humour is much better satisfied and contented44 with the pretty, frolic, rural, dishevelled shepherdesses, whose bums45 through their coarse canvas smocks smell of the clover grass of the field, than with those great ladies in magnific courts, with their flandan top-knots and sultanas, their polvil, pastillos, and cosmetics46. The homely47 sound, likewise, of a rustical hornpipe is more agreeable to my ears than the curious warbling and musical quavering of lutes, theorbos, viols, rebecs, and violins. He gave me a lusty rapping thwack on my back,— what then? Let it pass, in the name and for the love of God, as an abatement48 of and deduction49 from so much of my future pains in purgatory50. He did it not out of any evil intent. He thought, belike, to have hit some of the pages. He is an honest fool, and an innocent changeling. It is a sin to harbour in the heart any bad conceit51 of him. As for myself, I heartily52 pardon him. He flirted me on the nose. In that there is no harm; for it importeth nothing else but that betwixt my wife and me there will occur some toyish wanton tricks which usually happen to all new-married folks.
1 bondage | |
n.奴役,束缚 | |
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2 wedlock | |
n.婚姻,已婚状态 | |
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3 monk | |
n.和尚,僧侣,修道士 | |
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4 nay | |
adv.不;n.反对票,投反对票者 | |
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5 pawn | |
n.典当,抵押,小人物,走卒;v.典当,抵押 | |
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6 brotherhood | |
n.兄弟般的关系,手中情谊 | |
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7 oracles | |
神示所( oracle的名词复数 ); 神谕; 圣贤; 哲人 | |
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8 descending | |
n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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9 vocation | |
n.职业,行业 | |
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10 profess | |
v.声称,冒称,以...为业,正式接受入教,表明信仰 | |
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11 infamous | |
adj.声名狼藉的,臭名昭著的,邪恶的 | |
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12 conjugal | |
adj.婚姻的,婚姻性的 | |
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13 filthiness | |
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14 humble | |
adj.谦卑的,恭顺的;地位低下的;v.降低,贬低 | |
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15 discreet | |
adj.(言行)谨慎的;慎重的;有判断力的 | |
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16 obstreperous | |
adj.喧闹的,不守秩序的 | |
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17 bawling | |
v.大叫,大喊( bawl的现在分词 );放声大哭;大声叫出;叫卖(货物) | |
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18 clamorous | |
adj.吵闹的,喧哗的 | |
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19 flirted | |
v.调情,打情骂俏( flirt的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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20 thumping | |
adj.重大的,巨大的;重击的;尺码大的;极好的adv.极端地;非常地v.重击(thump的现在分词);狠打;怦怦地跳;全力支持 | |
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21 ridge | |
n.山脊;鼻梁;分水岭 | |
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22 impudently | |
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23 exempt | |
adj.免除的;v.使免除;n.免税者,被免除义务者 | |
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24 vassal | |
n.附庸的;属下;adj.奴仆的 | |
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25 folly | |
n.愚笨,愚蠢,蠢事,蠢行,傻话 | |
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26 jurisdiction | |
n.司法权,审判权,管辖权,控制权 | |
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27 avouched | |
v.保证,断言,承认( avouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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28 infinity | |
n.无限,无穷,大量 | |
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29 deducted | |
v.扣除,减去( deduct的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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30 abated | |
减少( abate的过去式和过去分词 ); 减去; 降价; 撤消(诉讼) | |
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31 testimony | |
n.证词;见证,证明 | |
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32 aver | |
v.极力声明;断言;确证 | |
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33 enraged | |
使暴怒( enrage的过去式和过去分词 ); 歜; 激愤 | |
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34 thereby | |
adv.因此,从而 | |
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35 wary | |
adj.谨慎的,机警的,小心的 | |
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36 joyfully | |
adv. 喜悦地, 高兴地 | |
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37 discourse | |
n.论文,演说;谈话;话语;vi.讲述,著述 | |
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38 jovial | |
adj.快乐的,好交际的 | |
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39 harmonious | |
adj.和睦的,调和的,和谐的,协调的 | |
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40 perfectly | |
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地 | |
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41 inclinations | |
倾向( inclination的名词复数 ); 倾斜; 爱好; 斜坡 | |
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42 disposition | |
n.性情,性格;意向,倾向;排列,部署 | |
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43 bias | |
n.偏见,偏心,偏袒;vt.使有偏见 | |
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44 contented | |
adj.满意的,安心的,知足的 | |
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45 bums | |
n. 游荡者,流浪汉,懒鬼,闹饮,屁股 adj. 没有价值的,不灵光的,不合理的 vt. 令人失望,乞讨 vi. 混日子,以乞讨为生 | |
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46 cosmetics | |
n.化妆品 | |
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47 homely | |
adj.家常的,简朴的;不漂亮的 | |
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48 abatement | |
n.减(免)税,打折扣,冲销 | |
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49 deduction | |
n.减除,扣除,减除额;推论,推理,演绎 | |
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50 purgatory | |
n.炼狱;苦难;adj.净化的,清洗的 | |
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51 conceit | |
n.自负,自高自大 | |
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52 heartily | |
adv.衷心地,诚恳地,十分,很 | |
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