Part 25 (1/2)
THE SAME AS TRANSLATED BY SMOLLETT.
Love, with idleness combined, Will unhinge the tender mind: But to few, to work and move, Will exclude the force of love.
Blooming maids that would be married, Must in virtue be unwearied; Modesty a dower will raise, And be a trumpet of their praise.
A cavalier will sport and play With a damsel frank and gay; But, when wedlock is his aim, Choose a maid of sober fame.
Pa.s.sion kindled in the breast, By a stranger or a guest, Enters with the rising sun, And fleets before his race be run: Love that comes so suddenly, Ever on the wing to fly, Neither can nor will impart Strong impressions to the heart.
Pictures drawn on pictures, show Strange confusion to the view: Second beauty finds no base, Where a first has taken place: Then Dulcinea still shall reign Without a rival or a stain; Nor shall fate itself control Her sway, or blot her from my soul: Constancy, the lover's boast, I'll maintain whate'er it cost: This, my virtue will refine; This will stamp my joys divine.
THE SAME AS TRANSLATED BY JARVIS.
Love, with idleness is friend, O'er a maiden gains its end: But let business and employment Fill up every careful moment; These an antidote will prove 'Gainst the pois'nous arts of love.
Maidens that aspire to marry, In their looks reserve should carry: Modesty their price should raise, And be the herald of their praise.
Knights, whom toils of arms employ, With the free may laugh and toy; But the modest only, choose When they tie the nuptial noose.
Love that rises with the sun, With his setting beams is gone: Love that guest-like visits hearts, When the banquet's o'er, departs: And the love that comes to-day, And to-morrow wings its way, Leaves no traces on the soul, Its affections to control.
Where a sovereign beauty reigns, Fruitless are a rival's pains,-- O'er a finished picture who E'er a second picture drew?
Fair Dulcinea, queen of beauty, Rules my heart, and claims its duty, Nothing there can take her place, Naught her image can erase.
Whether fortune smile or frown, Constancy 's the lover's crown; And, its force divine to prove, Miracles performs in love.
THE GOVERNOR IN A RAGE.
The history relates that Sancho Panza was conducted from the court of justice to a sumptuous palace, where in a great hall he found a magnificent entertainment prepared. He had no sooner entered than his ears were saluted by the sound of many instruments, and four pages served him with water to wash his hands, which the governor received with becoming gravity. The music having ceased, Sancho now sat down to dinner in a chair of state placed at the upper end of the table, for there was but one seat and only one plate and napkin. A personage, who, as it afterwards appeared, was a physician, took his stand at one side of his chair with a whalebone rod in his hand. They then removed the beautiful white cloth, which covered a variety of fruits and other eatables. Grace was said by one in a student's dress, and a laced bib was placed by a page under Sancho's chin. Another, who performed the office of sewer, now set a plate of fruit before him; but he had scarcely tasted it, when, on being touched by the wand-bearer, it was s.n.a.t.c.hed away, and another containing meat instantly supplied its place.
Yet before Sancho could make a beginning it vanished, like the former, on a signal of the wand.
The governor was surprised at this proceeding, and looking around him, asked if this dinner was only to show off their sleight of hand.
”My lord,” said the wand-bearer, ”your lords.h.i.+p's food must here be watched with the same care as is customary with the governors of other islands. I am a doctor of physic, sir, and my duty, for which I receive a salary, is to watch over the governor's health, whereof I am more careful than of my own. I study his const.i.tution night and day, that I may know how to restore him when sick; and therefore think it inc.u.mbent on me to pay especial regard to his meals, at which I constantly preside, to see that he eats what is good and salutary, and prevent his touching whatever I imagine may be prejudicial to his health or offensive to his stomach. It was for that reason, my lord,” continued he, ”I ordered the dish of fruit to be taken away, as being too watery, and that other dish, as being too hot and over-seasoned with spices, which are apt to provoke thirst; and he that drinks much destroys and consumes the radical moisture, which is the fuel of life.”
”Well, then,” quoth Sancho, ”that plate of roasted partridges, which seem to me to be very well seasoned, I suppose will do me no manner of harm?”
”Hold,” said the doctor, ”my lord governor shall not eat them while I live to prevent it.”
”Pray, why not?” quoth Sancho.
”Because,” answered the doctor, ”our great master Hippocrates, the north star and luminary of medicine, says in one of his aphorisms, _Omnis saturatio mala, perdicis autem pessima_; which means, 'All repletion is bad, but that from partridges the worst.'”
”If it be so,” quoth Sancho, ”pray cast your eye, signor doctor, over all these dishes here on the table, and see which will do me the most good or the least harm, and let me eat of it without whisking it away with your conjuring-stick; for, by my soul, and as Heaven shall give me life to enjoy this government, I am dying with hunger; and to deny me food--let signor doctor say what he will--is not the way to lengthen my life, but to cut it short.”
”Your wors.h.i.+p is in the right, my lord governor,” answered the physician, ”and therefore I am of opinion you should not eat of these stewed rabbits, as being a food that is tough and acute; of that veal, indeed, you might have taken a little, had it been neither roasted nor stewed; but as it is, not a morsel.”
”What think you, then,” said Sancho, ”of that huge dish there, smoking hot, which I take to be an olla-podrida?--for, among the many things contained in it, I surely may light upon something both wholesome and toothsome.”
”_Absit!_” quoth the doctor, ”far be such a thought from us.
Olla-podrida! there is no worse dish in the world. Leave them to prebends and rectors of colleges or l.u.s.ty feeders at country weddings; but let them not be seen on the tables of governors, where nothing contrary to health and delicacy should be tolerated. Simple medicines are always more estimable and safe, for in them there can be no mistake, whereas in such as are compounded all is hazard and uncertainty.
Therefore, what I would at present advise my lord governor to eat, in order to corroborate and preserve his health, is about a hundred small rolled-up wafers, with some thin slices of marmalade, that may sit upon the stomach and help digestion.”