Part 58 (1/2)
Quod futuit Glaphyran Antonius, hanc mihi poenam Fulvia const.i.tuit, se quoqne uti futuam.
Fulviam ego ut futuam! quid, si me Manius oret Podicem, faciam? Non puto, si sapiam.
Aut futue, aut pugnemus, ait Quid, si mihi vitii Charior est ipsa mentula? Signa canant.
Qui? moi, que je serve Fulvie!
Sufflt-il quelle en ait envie?
A ce compte, on verrait se retirer von moi Mille epouses mal satisfaites.
Aime-moi, me dit elle, ou combattons. Mais quoi?
Elle est bien laide! Allons, sonnes trompettes.
'Cause Anthony is fired with Glaphire's charms Fain would his Fulvia tempt me to her arms.
If Anthony be false, what then? must I Be slave to Fulvia's l.u.s.tful tyranny?
Then would a thousand wanton, waspish wives,
(I use my Latin with the liberty of conscience you are pleased to allow me.) Now this great body, with so many fronts, and so many motions, which seems to threaten heaven and earth:--
Quam multi Lybico volvuntur marmore fluctus, Saevus ubi Orion hibemis conditur undis, Vel quam solo novo densae torrentur Aristae, Aut Hermi campo, aut Lyciae flaventibus arvis; Scuta sonant, pulsuque pedum tremit excita tellus:
”Not thicker billows beat the Lybian main, When pale Orion sits in wintry rain; Nor thicker harvests on rich Hermus rise, Or Lycian fields, when Phobus burns the skies, Than stand these troops: their bucklers ring around; Their trampling turns the turf and shakes the solid ground:”
this furious monster, with so many heads and arms, is yet man--feeble, calamitous, and miserable man! 'Tis but an ant-hill disturbed and provoked:--
It nigrum campis agmen:
”The black troop marches to the field:”
a contrary blast, the croaking of a flight of ravens, the stumble of a horse, the casual pa.s.sage of an eagle, a dream, a voice, a sign, a morning mist, are any one of them sufficient to beat down and overturn him. Dart but a sunbeam in his face, he is melted and vanished. Blow but a little dust in his eyes, as our poet says of the bees, and all our ensigns and legions, with the great Pompey himself at the head of them, are routed and crushed to pieces; for it was he, as I take it, that Sertorious beat in Spain with those fine arms, which also served Eumenes against Antigonus, and Surena against Cra.s.sus:--
”Swarm to my bed like bees into their hives.
Declare for love, or war, she said; and frown'd: No love I'll grant: to arms bid trumpets sound.”
Hi motus animorum, atque hoc certamina tanta, Pulveris exigui jactu compressa quiescent.
”Yet at thy will these dreadful conflicts cease, Throw but a little dust and all is peace.”
Let us but slip our flies after them, and they will have the force and courage to defeat them. Of fresh memory, the Portuguese having besieged the city of Tamly, in the territory of Xiatine, the inhabitants of the place brought a great many hives, of which are great plenty in that place, upon the wall; and with fire drove the bees so furiously upon the enemy that they gave over the enterprise, not being able to stand their attacks and endure their stings; and so the citizens, by this new sort of relief, gained liberty and the victory with so wonderful a fortune, that at the return of their defenders from the battle they found they had not lost so much as one. The souls of emperors and cobblers are cast in the same mould; the weight and importance of the actions of princes considered, we persuade ourselves that they must be produced by some as weighty and important causes; but we are deceived; for they are pushed on, and pulled back in their motions, by the same springs that we are in our little undertakings. The same reason that makes us wrangle with a neighbour causes a war betwixt princes; the same reason that makes us whip a lackey, falling into the hands of a king makes him ruin a whole province. They are as lightly moved as we, but they are able to do more.
In a gnat and an elephant the pa.s.sion is the same.
As to fidelity, there is no animal in the world so treacherous as man.
Our histories have recorded the violent pursuits that dogs have made after the murderers of their masters. King Pyrrhus observing a dog that watched a dead man's body, and understanding that he had for three days together performed that office, commanded that the body should be buried, and took the dog along with him. One day, as he was at a general muster of his army, this dog, seeing his master's murderers, with great barking and extreme signs of anger flew upon them, and by this first accusation awakened the revenge of this murder, which was soon after perfected by form of justice. As much was done by the dog of the wise Hesiod, who convicted the sons of Ganictor of Naupactus of the murder committed on the person of his master. Another dog being to guard a temple at Athens, having spied a sacrilegious thief carrying away the finest jewels, fell to barking at him with all his force, but the warders not awaking at the noise, he followed him, and day being broke, kept off at a little distance, without losing sight of him; if he offered him any thing to eat he would not take it, but would wag his tail at all the pa.s.sengers he met, and took whatever they gave him; and if the thief laid down to sleep, he likewise stayed upon the same place.