QVELQVE diuersité d’herbes qu’il y ait, tout s’enueloppe sous le nom de salade. De mesme, sous la consideration des noms, ie m’en voy faire icy vne galimafrée de diuers articles.
Whatever variety of herbs there may be, it all gets wrapped up under the name of salad. In the same way, under the heading of names, I am going to make a hodgepodge of various items here.
Chaque nation a quelques noms qui se prennent, ie ne sçay comment, en mauuaise part: et à nous Iehan, Guillaume, Benoist. Item, il semble y auoir en la genealogie des Princes, certains noms fatalement affectez: comme des Ptolomées à ceux d’Ægypte, des Henrys en Angleterre, Charles en France, Baudoins en Flandres, et en nostre ancienne Aquitaine des Guillaumes, d’où lon dit que le nom de Guienne est venu: par vn froid rencontre, s’il n’en y auoit d’aussi cruds dans Platon mesme.
Every nation has some names that are taken, I don’t know how, in a bad sense: with us, Jehan, Guillaume, Benoît. Item: in the genealogy of princes there seem to be certain names fatefully assigned, such as Ptolemy to the kings of Egypt, Henry in England, Charles in France, Baldwin in Flanders, and, in our old Aquitaine, Guillaume, from which they say the name Guienne came—a feeble play on words, were there not some just as crude in Plato himself.
Item, c’est vne chose legere, mais toutefois digne de memoire pour son estrangeté, et escripte par tesmoin oculaire, que Henry Duc de Normandie, fils de Henry second Roy d’Angleterre, faisant vn festin en France, l’assemblée de la Noblesse y fut si grande, que pour passe-temps, s’estant diuisée en bandes par la ressemblance des noms: en la premiere troupe qui fut des Guillaumes, il se trouua cent dix Cheualiers assis à table portans ce nom, sans mettre en comte les simples Gentils-hommes et seruiteurs.
Item: it is a slight thing, but worth remembering for its strangeness, and recorded by an eyewitness, that when Henry, Duke of Normandy, son of Henry II, King of England, gave a feast in France, the gathering of nobility was so great that, having divided into groups by likeness of names for amusement, in the first troop, the Williams, there were found a hundred and ten knights seated at table bearing that name, not counting the plain gentlemen and servants.
Il est autant plaisant de distribuer les tables par les noms des assistans, comme il estoit à l’Empereur Geta, de faire distribuer le seruice de ses mets, par la consideration des premieres lettres du nom des viandes: on seruoit celles qui se commençoient par m: mouton, marcassin, merlus, marsoin, ainsi des autres.
It is as amusing to assign the tables by the names of the guests as it was for the Emperor Geta to have the courses of his dishes assigned according to the first letters of the names of the foods: they would serve those that began with M—mutton, young boar, hake, porpoise—and so on with the others.
Item, il se dit qu’il fait bon auoir bon nom, c’est à dire credit et reputation: mais encore à la verité est-il commode, d’auoir vn nom qui aisément se puisse prononcer et mettre en memoire: car les Roys et les grands nous en cognoissent plus aisément, et oublient plus mal volontiers; et de ceux mesmes qui nous seruent, nous commandons plus ordinairement et employons ceux, desquels les noms se presentent le plus facilement à la langue.
Item: they say it is good to have a good name, that is, credit and reputation. But in truth it is also convenient to have a name that is easy to pronounce and to remember, for kings and the great know us more easily by it and are less willing to forget us; and even among those who serve us, we more usually give orders to and employ those whose names come most readily to the tongue.
I’ay veu le Roy Henry second, ne pouuoir nommer à droit vn Gentil-homme de ce quartier de Gascongne; et à vne fille de la Royne, il fut luy mesme d’aduis de donner le nom general de la race, par ce que celuy de la maison paternelle luy sembla trop diuers. Et Socrates estime digne du soing paternel, de donner vn beau nom aux enfants.
I have seen King Henry II unable to say properly the name of a gentleman from this part of Gascony; and for one of the queen’s maids of honor he himself advised giving her the general name of her family, because that of her father’s house seemed to him too outlandish. And Socrates considers it worthy of a father’s care to give his children fine names.
Item, on dit que la fondation de nostre Dame la grand’ à Poitiers, prit origine de ce qu’vn ieune homme desbauché, logé en cet endroit, ayant recouuré vne garce, et luy ayant d’arriuée demandé son nom, qui estoit Marie, se sentit si viuement espris de religion et de respect de ce nom sacrosainct de la Vierge mere de nostre Sauueur, que non seulement il la chassa soudain, mais en amanda tout le reste de sa vie: et qu’en consideration de ce miracle, il fut basty en la place, où estoit la maison de ce ieune homme, vne chapelle au nom de nostre Dame, et depuis l’eglise que nous y voyons.
Item: they say that the church of Notre-Dame-la-Grande in Poitiers was founded in this way. A dissolute young man lodging on that spot had got hold of a girl and, asking her name as soon as she arrived, learned it was Marie. At that he felt himself so keenly seized with religion and with respect for that most sacred name of the Virgin Mother of our Savior that he not only sent her away at once but mended the whole rest of his life. And in consideration of this miracle there was built, on the spot where this young man’s house stood, a chapel in the name of Our Lady, and later the church that we see there.
Cette correction voyelle et auriculaire, deuotieuse, tira droit à l’ame: cette autre suiuante, de mesme genre, s’insinüa par les sens corporels. Pythagoras estant en compagnie de ieunes hommes, lesquels il sentit complotter, eschauffez de la feste, d’aller violer vne maison pudique, commanda à la menestriere, de changer de ton: et par vne musique poisante, seuere, et spondaïque, enchanta tout doucement leur ardeur, et l’endormit.
This correction, a pious one, working through voice and ear, went straight to the soul; this next one, of the same kind, worked its way in through the bodily senses. Pythagoras was in the company of some young men whom he perceived, heated by the festivities, to be plotting to go and violate a chaste household. He ordered the woman playing music to change her tune, and by a heavy, severe, spondaic music he gently charmed their ardor and lulled it to sleep.
Item, ne dira pas la posterité, que nostre reformation d’auiourd’huy ait esté delicate et exacte, de n’auoir pas seulement combattu les erreurs, et les vices, et rempli le monde de deuotion, d’humilité, d’obeissance, de paix, et de toute espece de vertu; mais d’auoir passé iusques à combattre ces anciens noms de nos baptesmes, Charles, Loys, François, pour peupler le monde de Mathusalem, Ezechiel, Malachie, beaucoup mieux sentans de la foy?
Item: will not posterity say that our present-day reformation has been delicate and exact, in that it not only fought errors and vices and filled the world with devotion, humility, obedience, peace and every kind of virtue, but went so far as to fight these old baptismal names of ours, Charles, Louis, François, so as to people the world with Methuselahs, Ezekiels and Malachis, which smell far more of the faith?
Vn Gentil-homme mien voisin, estimant les commoditez du vieux temps au prix du notre, n’oublioit pas de mettre en compte, la fierté et magnificence des noms de la Noblesse de ce temps là, Dom Grumedan, Quedragan, Agesilan, et qu’à les ouïr seulement sonner, il se sentoit qu’ils auoyent esté bien autres gens, que Pierre, Guillot, et Michel.
A gentleman, a neighbor of mine, weighing the advantages of the old days against ours, did not forget to count the pride and magnificence of the names of the nobility of that time—Dom Grumedan, Quedragan, Agesilan—and said that just hearing them ring out, one could feel they had been quite other people than Pierre, Guillot and Michel.
Item, ie sçay bon gré à Iacques Amiot d’auoir laissé dans le cours d’vn’ oraison Françoise, les noms Latins tous entiers, sans les bigarrer et changer, pour leur donner vne cadence Françoise. Cela sembloit vn peu rude au commencement: mais des-ja l’vsage par le credit de son Plutarque, nous en a osté toute l’estrangeté. I’ay souhaité souuent, que ceux qui escriuent les histoires en Latin, nous laissassent nos noms tous tels qu’ils sont: car en faisant de Vaudemont, Vallemontanus, et les metamorphosant, pour les garber à la Grecque ou à la Romaine, nous ne sçauons où nous en sommes, et en perdons la cognoissance.
Item: I am grateful to Jacques Amyot for having left the Latin names whole in the course of his French prose, without tricking them out and altering them to give them a French cadence. That seemed a little harsh at first, but usage, through the credit of his Plutarch, has already removed all their strangeness for us. I have often wished that those who write histories in Latin would leave our names just as they are. For by making Vaudemont into Vallemontanus, and metamorphosing names to dress them up in Greek or Roman fashion, they leave us not knowing where we are, and we lose all knowledge of them.
Pour clorre nostre compte; c’est vn vilain vsage et de tres-mauuaise consequence en nostre France, d’appeller chacun par le nom de sa terre et Seigneurie, et la chose du monde, qui faict plus mesler et mescognoistre les races. Vn cadet de bonne maison, ayant eu pour son appanage vne terre, sous le nom de laquelle il a esté cognu et honnoré, ne peut honnestement l’abandonner: dix ans apres sa mort, la terre s’en va à vn estranger, qui en fait de mesmes: deuinez où nous sommes, de la cognoissance de ces hommes. Il ne faut pas aller querir d’autres exemples, que de nostre maison Royalle, où autant de partages, autant de surnoms: cependant l’originel de la tige nous est eschappé.
To close our account: it is a nasty practice, and of very bad consequence in our France, to call each man by the name of his land and lordship, and the thing in the world that most muddles families and makes them unrecognizable. A younger son of a good house, having received as his portion an estate under whose name he has been known and honored, cannot decently abandon it. Ten years after his death the estate passes to a stranger, who does the same: guess where we stand in knowing who these men are. We need look for no other examples than our royal house, where there are as many surnames as there are portions; meanwhile the origin of the stock has escaped us.
Il y a tant de liberté en ces mutations, que de mon temps ie n’ay veu personne esleué par la fortune à quelque grandeur extraordinaire, à qui on n’ait attaché incontinent des tiltres genealogiques, nouueaux et ignorez à son pere, et qu’on n’ait anté en quelque illustre tige. Et de bonne fortune les plus obscures familles, sont plus idoynes à falsification.
There is such freedom in these changes that in my time I have not seen anyone raised by fortune to some extraordinary greatness who did not at once have genealogical titles attached to him, new and unknown to his father, and was not grafted onto some illustrious stock. And as luck would have it, the most obscure families are the best suited to falsification.
Combien auons nous de Gentils-hommes en France, qui sont de Royalle race selon leurs comptes? plus ce crois-ie que d’autres. Fut-il pas dict de bonne grace par vn de mes amis? Ils estoyent plusieurs assemblez pour la querelle d’vn Seigneur, contre vn autre; lequel autre, auoit à la verité quelque prerogatiue de tiltres et d’alliances, esleuées au dessus de la commune Noblesse. Sur le propos de cette prerogatiue, chacun cherchant à s’esgaler à luy, alleguoit, qui vn’ origine, qui vn’ autre, qui la ressemblance du nom, qui des armes, qui vne vieille pancharte domestique: et le moindre se trouuoit arriere-fils de quelque Roy d’outremer.
How many gentlemen do we have in France who are of royal blood by their own reckoning? More, I believe, than of any other kind. Was it not neatly done by a friend of mine? A number of them had gathered over a quarrel between one lord and another. This other did in truth have some prerogative of titles and alliances raised above the common nobility. On the subject of this prerogative, each one, trying to make himself his equal, put forward one origin or another—one the resemblance of his name, another his arms, another an old family charter—and the least of them turned out to be the descendant of some king from overseas.
Comme ce fut à disner, cettuy-cy, au lieu de prendre sa place, se recula en profondes reuerences, suppliant l’assistance de l’excuser, de ce que par temerité il auoit iusques lors vescu auec eux en compagnon: mais qu’ayant esté nouuellement informé de leurs vieilles qualitez, il commençoit à les honnorer selon leurs degrez, et qu’il ne luy appartenoit pas de se soir parmy tant de Princes.
When it came to dinner, this friend, instead of taking his place, backed away with deep bows, begging the company to excuse him for having rashly lived among them until then as an equal; but now that he had been newly informed of their ancient ranks, he was beginning to honor them according to their degrees, and it was not fitting for him to sit among so many princes.
Apres sa farce, il leur dit mille iniures: Contentez vous de par Dieu, de ce dequoy nos peres se sont contentez: et de ce que nous sommes; nous sommes assez si nous le sçauons bien maintenir: ne desaduouons pas la fortune et condition de noz ayeulx, et ostons ces sottes imaginations, qui ne peuuent faillir à quiconque a l’impudence de les alleguer.
After his farce, he heaped abuse on them: “In God’s name, be content with what our fathers were content with, and with what we are. We are enough if we know how to keep it up well. Let us not disown the fortune and condition of our ancestors, and let us get rid of these silly fancies, which are always there for anyone with the impudence to put them forward.”
Les armoiries n’ont de seurté, non plus que les surnoms. Ie porte d’azur semé de trefles d’or, à vne pate de lyon de mesme, armée de gueules, mise en face. Quel priuilege a cette figure, pour demeurer particulierement en ma maison? vn gendre la transportera en vne autre famille; quelque chetif acheteur en fera ses premieres armes: il n’est chose où il se rencontre plus de mutation et de confusion.
Coats of arms are no more secure than surnames. My arms are azure, strewn with gold trefoils, with a lion’s paw also of gold, armed in gules, set across the middle of the shield. What privilege does this figure have to remain particularly in my house? A son-in-law will carry it into another family; some paltry buyer will make it his first arms. There is nothing in which more change and confusion is to be found.
Mais cette consideration me tire par force à vn autre champ. Sondons vn peu de pres, et pour Dieu regardons, à quel fondement nous attachons cette gloire et reputation, pour laquelle se boulleuerse le monde: où asseons nous cette renommée, que nous allons questant auec si grand’peine? C’est en somme Pierre ou Guillaume, qui la porte, prend en garde, et à qui elle touche. O la courageuse faculté que l’esperance: qui en vn subiect mortel, et en vn moment, va vsurpant l’infinité, l’immensité, et remplissant l’indigence de son maistre, de la possession de toutes les choses qu’il peut imaginer et desirer, autant qu’elle veut! Nature nous a là donné, vn plaisant iouët. Et ce Pierre ou Guillaume, qu’est-ce qu’vne voix pour tous potages?
But this consideration drags me by force into another field. Let us probe a little closely and, for God’s sake, look at what foundation we attach this glory and reputation to, for which the world is turned upside down. Where do we set this renown that we go questing after with such great pains? It is, in the end, Pierre or Guillaume who bears it, takes it into his keeping, and whom it concerns. Oh, what a valiant faculty hope is, which, in a mortal subject and in a moment, goes usurping infinity and immensity, and fills its master’s poverty with the possession of all the things he can imagine and desire, as much as it likes! Nature has given us a pretty toy there. And this Pierre or Guillaume—what is it, all told, but a sound?
ou trois ou quatre traicts de plume, premierement si aisez à varier, que ie demanderois volontiers à qui touche l’honneur de tant de victoires, à Guesquin, à Glesquin, ou à Gueaquin? Il y auroit bien plus d’apparence icy, qu’en Lucien que Σ. mit T. en procez, car Non leuia aut ludicra petuntur / Præmia: Il y va de bon; il est question laquelle de ces lettres doit estre payée de tant de sieges, battailles, blessures, prisons et seruices faits à la couronne de France, par ce sien fameux Connestable.
or three or four strokes of the pen, so easy to vary, first of all, that I would gladly ask to whom the honor of so many victories belongs: to Guesquin, to Glesquin, or to Gueaquin? There would be far more reason for a lawsuit here than in Lucian, where Sigma (Σ) sues Tau (T), for No light or trivial prizes / are sought: this is serious business. The question is which of these spellings is to be paid for so many sieges, battles, wounds, imprisonments and services rendered to the crown of France by its famous Constable.
Nicolas Denisot n’a eu soing que des lettres de son nom, et en a changé toute la contexture, pour en bastir le Conte d’Alsinois qu’il a estrené de la gloire de sa poësie et peinture. Et l’historien Suetone n’a aymé que le sens du sien, et en ayant priué Lénis, qui estoit le surnom de son pere, a laissé Tranquillus successeur de la reputation de ses escrits. Qui croiroit que le Capitaine Bayard n’eust honneur, que celuy qu’il a emprunté des faicts de Pierre Terrail? et qu’Antoine Escalin se laisse voler à sa veuë tant de nauigations et charges par mer et par terre au Capitaine Poulin, et au Baron de la Garde?
Nicolas Denisot cared only for the letters of his name, and rearranged them completely to build out of them the Comte d’Alsinois, whom he endowed with the glory of his poetry and painting. And the historian Suetonius cared only for the meaning of his: setting aside Lenis, his father’s surname, he made Tranquillus heir to the reputation of his writings. Who would believe that Captain Bayard has no honor except what he borrowed from the deeds of Pierre Terrail? And that Antoine Escalin lets so many voyages and commands by sea and land be stolen from him before his eyes by Captain Poulin and the Baron de la Garde?
Secondement ce sont traits de plume communs à mill’hommes. Combien y a-il en toutes les races, de personnes de mesme nom et surnom? Et en diuerses races, siecles et païs, combien? L’histoire a cognu trois Socrates, cinq Platons, huict Aristotes, sept Xenophons, vingt Demetrius, vingt Theodores: et pensez combien elle n’en a pas cognu. Qui empesche mon palefrenier de s’appeller Pompée le grand? Mais apres tout, quels moyens, quels ressors y a il qui attachent à mon palefrenier trespassé, ou à cet autre homme qui eut la teste tranchée en Ægypte, et qui ioignent à eux, cette voix glorifiée, et ces traits de plume, ainsin honnorez, affin qu’ils s’en aduantagent? Id cinerem et manes credis curare sepultos?
Secondly, these are pen strokes common to a thousand men. How many people in every family share the same name and surname? And across different families, ages and countries, how many? History has known three Socrateses, five Platos, eight Aristotles, seven Xenophons, twenty Demetriuses, twenty Theodores—and think how many it has not known. What prevents my groom from calling himself Pompey the Great? But after all, what means, what springs are there that attach to my dead groom, or to that other man who had his head cut off in Egypt, and join to them this glorified sound and these pen strokes so honored, so that they may profit by them? Do you think ashes and buried shades care about that?
Quel ressentiment ont les deux compagnons en principale valeur entre les hommes: Epaminondas de ce glorieux vers, qui court tant de siecles pour luy en nos bouches, Consiliis nostris laus est attrita Laconum; et Africanus de cet autre, A sole exoriente, supra Mæotis paludes / Nemo est, qui factis me æquiparare queat?
What do they feel, those two companions of highest worth among men: Epaminondas, of that glorious line that has run in our mouths on his behalf for so many centuries, By my counsels the glory of the Spartans was cut down; and Africanus, of this other one, From the rising sun to beyond the Maeotian marshes / there is no one who can match my deeds?
Les suruiuants se chatouillent de la douceur de ces voix: et par icelles solicitez de ialousie et desir, transmettent inconsiderément par fantasie aux trespassez cettuy leur propre ressentiment: et d’vne pipeuse esperance se donnent à croire d’en estre capables à leur tour. Dieu le sçait. Toutesfois, ad hæc se. / Romanus Graiúsque et Barbarus Induperator. / Erexit; causas discriminis atque laboris. / Inde habuit, tanto maior famæ sitis est, quàm. / Virtutis.
The survivors are tickled by the sweetness of these sounds, and, stirred by them to jealousy and desire, they thoughtlessly transfer their own feeling to the dead in fancy, and with a deceiving hope make themselves believe that they will be capable of it in their turn. God knows. Nevertheless, for these things / the Roman, the Greek and the barbarian commander / has roused himself; the causes of danger and toil / he has found here: so much greater is the thirst for fame than / for virtue.