IE ne fay point de doute, qu’il ne m’aduienne souuent de parler de choses, qui sont mieux traictées chez les maistres du mestier, et plus veritablement. C’est icy purement l’essay de mes facultez naturelles, et nullement des acquises. Et qui me surprendra d’ignorance, il ne fera rien contre moy: car à peine respondroy-ie à autruy de mes discours, qui ne m’en responds point à moy, ny n’en suis satisfaict. Qui sera en cherche de science, si la pesche où elle se loge: il n’est rien dequoy ie face moins de profession.
I have no doubt that I often happen to speak of things that are better and more truthfully treated by the masters of the craft. This is purely a trial of my natural faculties, and not at all of acquired ones. Whoever catches me out in ignorance will score nothing against me. I could hardly answer to others for my reasonings, when I do not answer for them to myself and am not satisfied with them. Whoever is in search of knowledge, let him fish for it where it lives: there is nothing I make less profession of.
Ce sont icy mes fantasies, par lesquelles ie ne tasche point à donner à connoistre les choses, mais moy: elles me seront à l’aduenture connues vn iour, ou l’ont autresfois esté, selon que la Fortune m’a peu porter sur les lieux, où elles estoient esclaircies. Mais il ne m’en souuient plus. Et si ie suis homme de quelque leçon, ie suis homme de nulle retention. Ainsi ie ne pleuuy aucune certitude, si ce n’est de faire connoistre iusques à quel poinct monte pour cette heure, la connoissance que i’en ay.
These are my notions, and through them I am not trying to make things known, but myself. The things may perhaps become known to me one day, or may have been once, depending on whether Fortune has been able to bring me to the places where they were made clear. But I no longer remember them. And if I am a man of some reading, I am a man of no retention. So I guarantee no certainty, except to make known how far my knowledge of them reaches at this moment.
Qu’on ne s’attende pas aux matieres, mais à la façon que i’y donne. Qu’on voye en ce que i’emprunte, si i’ay sçeu choisir dequoy rehausser ou secourir proprement l’inuention, qui vient tousiours de moy. Car ie fay dire aux autres, non à ma teste, mais à ma suite, ce que ie ne puis si bien dire, par foiblesse de mon langage, ou par foiblesse de mon sens. Ie ne compte pas mes emprunts, ie les poise. Et si ie les eusse voulu faire valoir par nombre, ie m’en fusse chargé deux fois autant. Ils sont touts, ou fort peu s’en faut, de noms si fameux et anciens, qu’ils me semblent se nommer assez sans moy.
Let people pay attention not to the matter but to the shape I give it. Let them see, in what I borrow, whether I have known how to choose something that properly enhances or supports the invention, which always comes from me. For I make others say—not ahead of me but following in my train—what I cannot say so well myself, through the weakness of my language or the weakness of my sense. I do not count my borrowings; I weigh them. Had I wanted them to impress by their number, I would have loaded myself with twice as many. They are all, or very nearly all, from names so famous and ancient that they seem to me to name themselves well enough without me.
Ez raisons, comparaisons, argumens, si i’en transplante quelcun en mon solage, et confons aux miens, à escient i’en cache l’autheur, pour tenir en bride la temerité de ces sentences hastiues, qui se iettent sur toute sorte d’escrits: notamment ieunes escrits, d’hommes encore viuants: et en vulgaire, qui reçoit tout le monde à en parler, et qui semble conuaincre la conception et le dessein vulgaire de mesmes. Ie veux qu’ils donnent vne nazarde à Plutarque sur mon nez, et qu’ils s’eschaudent à iniurier Seneque en moy. Il faut musser ma foiblesse souz ces grands credits. I’aimeray quelqu’vn qui me sçache deplumer: ie dy par clairté de iugement, et par la seule distinction de la force et beauté des propos.
As for reasons, comparisons and arguments, if I transplant any of them into my own soil and blend them with mine, I deliberately hide the author. I do it to rein in the rashness of those hasty verdicts that pounce on every kind of writing—especially new writings by men still living, and in the vernacular, which lets everybody talk about it and seems to convict the conception and design of being just as common. I want them to flick Plutarch on the nose when they flick mine, and to scald themselves insulting Seneca in me. I have to hide my weakness under these great reputations. I will love anyone who knows how to pluck my borrowed feathers—I mean by clearness of judgment, and solely by telling apart the strength and beauty of the remarks.
Car moy, qui, à faute de memoire, demeure court tous les coups, à les trier, par recognoissance de nation, sçay tresbien connoistre, à mesurer ma portée, que mon terroir n’est aucunement capable d’aucunes fleurs trop riches, que i’y trouue semées, et que tous les fruicts de mon creu ne les sçauroient payer. De cecy suis-ie tenu de respondre, si ie m’empesche moy-mesme, s’il y a de la vanité et vice en mes discours, que ie ne sente point, ou que ie ne soye capable de sentir en me le representant. Car il eschappe souuent des fautes à nos yeux: mais la maladie du iugement consiste à ne les pouuoir apperceuoir, lors qu’vn autre nous les descouure.
For I, who for lack of memory am caught short every time I try to sort them by recognizing where they come from, know very well, measuring my own reach, that my soil is quite incapable of producing certain overly rich flowers that I find sown in it, and that all the fruits of my own growing could never pay for them. This much I am bound to answer for: if I trip myself up; if there is vanity and fault in my reasonings that I do not perceive, or that I am incapable of perceiving when it is pointed out to me. For faults often slip past our eyes; but the sickness of judgment consists in being unable to see them when someone else reveals them to us.
La science et la verité peuuent loger chez nous sans iugement, et le iugement y peut aussi estre sans elles: voire la reconnoissance de l’ignorance est l’vn des plus beaux et plus seurs tesmoignages de iugement que ie trouue. Ie n’ay point d’autre sergent de bande, à renger mes pieces, que la Fortune. A mesme que mes resueries se presentent, ie les entasse: tantost elles se pressent en foule, tantost elles se trainent à la file. Ie veux qu’on voye mon pas naturel et ordinaire ainsi detraqué qu’il est. Ie me laisse aller comme ie me trouue. Aussi ne sont ce point icy matieres, qu’il ne soit pas permis d’ignorer, et d’en parler casuellement et temerairement.
Knowledge and truth can lodge in us without judgment, and judgment can also be there without them; indeed, recognizing one’s ignorance is one of the finest and surest testimonies of judgment I know. I have no other drill sergeant to line up my pieces than Fortune. As my daydreams present themselves, I heap them up: sometimes they crowd in all together, sometimes they straggle in single file. I want people to see my natural, ordinary gait, as off-kilter as it is. I let myself go as I find myself. Besides, these are not matters that one is forbidden to be ignorant of, or to speak of casually and rashly.
Ie souhaiterois auoir plus parfaicte intelligence des choses, mais ie ne la veux pas achepter si cher qu’elle couste. Mon dessein est de passer doucement, et non laborieusement ce qui me reste de vie. Il n’est rien pourquoy ie me vueille rompre la teste: non pas pour la science, de quelque grand prix qu’elle soit.
I would like to have a more perfect understanding of things, but I do not want to buy it at the price it costs. My plan is to spend what remains of my life pleasantly and not laboriously. There is nothing I am willing to rack my brains over—not even knowledge, however great its value.
Ie ne cherche aux liures qu’à m’y donner du plaisir par vn honneste amusement: ou si i’estudie, ie n’y cherche que la science, qui traicte de la connoissance de moy-mesmes, et qui m’instruise à bien mourir et à bien viure. Has meus ad metas sudet oportet equus.
In books I seek only to give myself pleasure by a decent pastime; or if I study, I seek only the knowledge that deals with knowing myself, and that may teach me to die well and to live well. This is the goal my horse must sweat to reach.
Les difficultez, si i’en rencontre en lisant, ie n’en ronge pas mes ongles: ie les laisse là, apres leur auoir faict vne charge ou deux. Si ie m’y plantois, ie m’y perdrois, et le temps: car i’ay vn esprit primsautier. Ce que ie ne voy de la premiere charge, ie le voy moins en m’y obstinant. Ie ne fay rien sans gayeté: et la continuation et contention trop ferme esblouït mon iugement, l’attriste, et le lasse. Ma veuë s’y confond, et s’y dissipe. Il faut que ie la retire, et que ie l’y remette à secousses. Tout ainsi que pour iuger du lustre de l’escarlatte, on nous ordonne de passer les yeux pardessus, en la parcourant à diuerses veuës, soudaines reprinses et reiterées.
Difficulties, if I meet any in reading, I do not bite my nails over; I leave them there after making a charge or two at them. If I planted myself in front of them, I would lose myself, and my time too, for my mind works at the first leap. What I do not see at the first charge, I see less by persisting. I do nothing without gaiety; and too steady a persistence and strain dazzles my judgment, saddens it and tires it. My sight grows confused and scattered. I have to withdraw it and bring it back in sudden jerks—just as, to judge the sheen of scarlet cloth, we are told to pass our eyes over it, running over it with various glances, in sudden, repeated takes.
Si ce liure me fasche, i’en prens vn autre, et ne m’y addonne qu’aux heures, où l’ennuy de rien faire commence à me saisir. Ie ne me prens gueres aux nouueaux, pour ce que les anciens me semblent plus pleins et plus roides: ny aux Grecs, par ce que mon iugement ne sçait pas faire ses besoignes d’vne puerile et apprantisse intelligence.
If one book annoys me, I take another; and I give myself to reading only at the hours when the weariness of doing nothing begins to seize me. I hardly ever take up the new ones, because the ancients seem to me fuller and sturdier; nor the Greek ones, because my judgment cannot do its work with a childish, apprentice’s understanding.
Entre les liures simplement plaisans, ie trouue des modernes, le Decameron de Boccace, Rabelays, et les baisers de Iean second, s’il les faut loger sous ce tiltre, dignes qu’on s’y amuse. Quant aux Amadis, et telles sortes d’escrits, ils n’ont pas eu le credit d’arrester seulement mon enfance. Ie diray encore cecy, ou hardiment, ou temerairement, que cette vieille ame poisante, ne se laisse plus chatouiller, non seulement à l’Arioste, mais encores au bon Ouide: sa facilité, et ses inuentions, qui m’ont rauy autresfois, à peine m’entretiennent elles à cette heure. Ie dy librement mon aduis de toutes choses, voire et de celles qui surpassent à l’aduenture ma suffisance, et que ie ne tiens aucunement estre de ma iurisdiction.
Among books that are simply entertaining, I find, among the moderns, Boccaccio’s Decameron, Rabelais, and the Kisses of Johannes Secundus (if they may be lodged under that heading) worth amusing oneself with. As for the Amadis and writings of that sort, they did not have the credit to hold even my childhood. I will say this too, either boldly or rashly: this heavy old soul of mine no longer lets itself be tickled not only by Ariosto but even by good Ovid. His facility and his inventions, which once ravished me, hardly hold my attention now. I speak my mind freely about all things, even those that perhaps exceed my competence and that I in no way consider to be within my jurisdiction.
Ce que i’en opine, c’est aussi pour declarer la mesure de ma veuë, non la mesure des choses. Quand ie me trouue dégousté de l’Axioche de Platon, comme d’vn ouurage sans force, eu esgard à vn tel autheur, mon iugement ne s’en croit pas. Il n’est pas si outrecuidé de s’opposer à l’authorité de tant d’autres fameux iugemens anciens: qu’il tient ses regens et ses maistres: et auecq lesquels il est plustost content de faillir. Il s’en prend à soy, et se condamne, ou de s’arrester à l’escorce, ne pouuant penetrer iusques au fonds: ou de regarder la chose par quelque faux lustre. Il se contente de se garentir seulement du trouble et du desreglement: quant à sa foiblesse, il la reconnoist, et aduoüe volontiers.
What I opine about them is meant to declare the measure of my sight, not the measure of things. When I find myself put off by Plato’s Axiochus, as a work without force considering such an author, my judgment does not trust itself. It is not so presumptuous as to set itself against the authority of so many other famous ancient judgments, which it regards as its tutors and masters, and with which it would rather be wrong. It blames itself and condemns itself, either for stopping at the bark, unable to get through to the core, or for looking at the thing in some false light. It is content merely to protect itself from confusion and disorder; as for its weakness, it recognizes it and readily admits it.
Il pense donner iuste interpretation aux apparences, que sa conception luy presente: mais elles sont imbecilles et imparfaictes. La plus part des fables d’Esope ont plusieurs sens et intelligences: ceux qui les mythologisent, en choisissent quelque visage, qui quadre bien à la fable: mais pour la pluspart, ce n’est que le premier visage et superficiel: il y en a d’autres plus vifs, plus essentiels et internes, ausquels ils n’ont sçeu penetrer: voyla comme i’en fay.
It thinks it gives a fair interpretation of the appearances its conception presents to it; but these are feeble and imperfect. Most of Aesop’s fables have several senses and meanings. Those who interpret them as allegories pick some aspect that fits the fable well; but for the most part it is only the first, superficial aspect. There are others, more vital, more essential and inward, which they have not managed to penetrate. That is how it goes with me.
The poets he loves
Virgil, Lucretius, Catullus and Horace come first; Terence wins over Plautus, Virgil over Ariosto.
Mais pour suyure ma route: il m’a tousiours semblé, qu’en la poësie, Virgile, Lucrece, Catulle, et Horace, tiennent de bien loing le premier rang: et signamment Virgile en ses Georgiques, que i’estime le plus accomply ouurage de la poësie: à comparaison duquel on peut reconnoistre aysément qu’il y a des endroicts de l’Æneide, ausquels l’autheur eust donné encore quelque tour de pigne s’il en eust eu loisir. Et le cinquiesme liure en l’Æneide me semble le plus parfaict. I’ayme aussi Lucain, et le practique volontiers, non tant pour son stile, que pour sa valeur propre, et verité de ses opinions et iugemens.
But to keep to my route: it has always seemed to me that in poetry Virgil, Lucretius, Catullus and Horace hold the first rank by a long way—and especially Virgil in his Georgics, which I consider the most accomplished work of poetry. Compared with it, one can easily see that there are places in the Aeneid to which the author would have given a few more strokes of the comb had he had the leisure. And the fifth book of the Aeneid seems to me the most perfect. I also love Lucan and read him readily, not so much for his style as for his own worth and the truth of his opinions and judgments.
Quant au bon Terence, la mignardise, et les graces du langage Latin, ie le trouue admirable à representer au vif les mouuemens de l’ame, et la condition de nos mœurs: à toute heure nos actions me reiettent à luy. Ie ne le puis lire si souuent que ie n’y trouue quelque beauté et grace nouuelle. Ceux des temps voisins à Virgile se plaignoient, dequoy aucuns luy comparoient Lucrece. Ie suis d’opinion, que c’est à la verité vne comparaison inegale: mais i’ay bien à faire à me r’asseurer en cette creance, quand ie me treuue attaché à quelque beau lieu de ceux de Lucrece.
As for good Terence, the very delicacy and grace of the Latin language, I find him admirable at portraying to the life the movements of the soul and the condition of our manners; at every turn our actions send me back to him. I can never read him so often that I do not find some new beauty and grace in him. Those who lived close to Virgil’s time complained that some people compared Lucretius to him. I am of the opinion that it is indeed an unequal comparison; but I have a hard time holding firm in this belief when I find myself caught by some fine passage of Lucretius.
S’ils se piquoient de cette comparaison, que diroient ils de la bestise et stupidité barbaresque, de ceux qui luy comparent à cette heure Arioste: et qu’en diroit Arioste luy-mesme? O seclum insipiens et infacetum! I’estime que les anciens auoient encore plus à se plaindre de ceux qui apparioient Plaute à Terence (cestuy-cy sent bien mieux son Gentil-homme) que Lucrece à Virgile. Pour l’estimation et preference de Terence, fait beaucoup, que le pere de l’eloquence Romaine l’a si souuent en la bouche, seul de son reng: et la sentence, que le premier iuge des poëtes Romains donne de son compagnon.
If they were stung by that comparison, what would they say of the barbarous stupidity and dullness of those who now compare Ariosto to him? And what would Ariosto himself say? O age without sense or wit! I think the ancients had even more cause to complain of those who paired Plautus with Terence (the latter has much more the air of a gentleman) than of those who paired Lucretius with Virgil. For the esteem and preference given to Terence, it counts for much that the father of Roman eloquence has him so often on his lips, alone of his kind; and so does the verdict that the foremost judge of Roman poets passes on his fellow poet.
Il m’est souuent tombé en fantasie, comme en nostre temps, ceux qui se meslent de faire des comedies, ainsi que les Italiens, qui y sont assez heureux, employent trois ou quatre argumens de celles de Terence, ou de Plaute, pour en faire vne des leurs. Ils entassent en vne seule comedie, cinq ou six contes de Boccace. Ce qui les fait ainsi se charger de matiere, c’est la deffiance qu’ils ont de se pouuoir soustenir de leurs propres graces. Il faut qu’ils trouuent vn corps où s’appuyer: et n’ayans pas du leur assez dequoy nous arrester, ils veulent que le conte nous amuse.
It has often occurred to me how, in our time, those who take to writing comedies (like the Italians, who are quite successful at it) use three or four plots from the plays of Terence or Plautus to make one of their own. They heap five or six of Boccaccio’s tales into a single comedy. What makes them load themselves with so much matter is that they do not trust themselves to stand up on their own graces. They have to find a body to lean on; and not having enough of their own to hold us, they want the story to entertain us.
Il en va de mon autheur tout au contraire: les perfections et beautez de sa façon de dire, nous font perdre l’appetit de son subiect. Sa gentillesse et sa mignardise nous retiennent par tout. Il est par tout si plaisant, Liquidus, puróque simillimus amni, et nous remplit tant l’ame de ses graces, que nous en oublions celles de sa fable.
With my author it is quite the opposite: the perfections and beauties of his way of speaking make us lose our appetite for his subject. His elegance and charm hold us everywhere. He is so delightful everywhere, Flowing, and most like a pure stream, and fills our soul so full of his graces, that we forget those of his plot.
Cette mesme consideration me tire plus auant. Ie voy que les bons et anciens poëtes ont euité l’affectation et la recherche, non seulement des fantastiques eleuations Espagnoles et Petrarchistes, mais des pointes mesmes plus douces et plus retenues, qui sont l’ornement de tous les ouurages poëtiques des siecles suyuans. Si n’y a il bon iuge qui les trouue à dire en ces anciens, et qui n’admire plus sans comparaison, l’egale polissure et cette perpetuelle douceur et beauté fleurissante des epigrammes de Catulle, que tous les esguillons, dequoy Martial esguise la queuë des siens. C’est cette mesme raison que ie disoy tantost, comme Martial de soy, minus illi ingenio laborandum fuit, in cuius locum materia successerat.
This same consideration leads me further. I see that the good ancient poets avoided affectation and straining after effect—not only the fantastic flights of the Spanish and the Petrarchists, but even the gentler and more restrained conceits that are the ornament of all the poetic works of the centuries that followed. Yet there is no good judge who misses them in these ancients, or who does not admire, beyond all comparison, the even polish and the perpetual sweetness and flowering beauty of Catullus’ epigrams more than all the stings with which Martial sharpens the tails of his. It is for the same reason I gave just now, as Martial said of himself: his wit had less work to do, since the subject had taken its place.
Ces premiers là, sans s’esmouuoir et sans se picquer se font assez sentir: ils ont dequoy rire par tout, il ne faut pas qu’ils se chatouillent: ceux-cy ont besoing de secours estranger: à mesure qu’ils ont moins d’esprit, il leur faut plus de corps: ils montent à cheual par ce qu’ils ne sont assez forts sur leurs iambes. Tout ainsi qu’en nos bals, ces hommes de vile condition, qui en tiennent escole, pour ne pouuoir representer le port et la decence de nostre noblesse, cherchent à se recommander par des sauts perilleux, et autres mouuemens estranges et basteleresques.
The former, without getting excited or goading themselves, make themselves felt well enough: they have something to laugh at everywhere, and need not tickle themselves. The latter need outside help: the less wit they have, the more body they need. They get on horseback because they are not strong enough on their own legs. Just so, at our balls, those men of low condition who run dancing schools, unable to reproduce the bearing and decorum of our nobility, try to recommend themselves by daring leaps and other strange, acrobatic movements.
Et les dames ont meilleur marché de leur contenance, aux danses où il y a diuerses descoupeures et agitation de corps, qu’en certaines autres danses de parade, où elles n’ont simplement qu’à marcher vn pas naturel, et representer vn port naïf et leur grace ordinaire. Et comme i’ay veu aussi les badins excellens, vestus en leur à tous les iours, et en vne contenance commune, nous donner tout le plaisir qui se peut tirer de leur art: les apprentifs, qui ne sont de si haute leçon, auoir besoin de s’enfariner le visage, se trauestir, se contrefaire en mouuemens de grimaces sauuages, pour nous apprester à rire. Cette mienne conception se reconnoist mieux qu’en tout autre lieu, en la comparaison de l’Æneide et du Furieux.
And ladies have an easier time with their deportment in dances full of intricate steps and agitation of the body than in certain other dances of state, where they simply have to walk with a natural step and show a natural bearing and their ordinary grace. And I have also seen excellent clowns, dressed in their everyday clothes and with an ordinary countenance, give us all the pleasure that can be drawn from their art, while the apprentices, not so highly schooled, need to flour their faces, dress up in disguise, and contort themselves into wild grimaces to set us laughing. This notion of mine can be recognized better than anywhere else by comparing the Aeneid with the Orlando Furioso.
Celuy-là on le voit aller à tire d’aisle, d’vn vol haut et ferme, suyuant tousiours sa poincte: cestuy-cy voleter et sauteler de conte en conte, comme de branche en branche, ne se fiant à ses aisles, que pour vne bien courte trauerse: et prendre pied à chasque bout de champ, de peur que l’haleine et la force luy faille, Excursúsque breues tentat. Voyla donc quant à cette sorte de subiects, les autheurs qui me plaisent le plus.
The one we see soaring at full wing, in a high, steady flight, always holding its course; the other fluttering and hopping from tale to tale as from branch to branch, trusting its wings only for a very short crossing, and landing at every field’s end for fear that its breath and strength might fail: And it tries short flights. There, then, as regards this kind of subject, are the authors who please me most.
Plutarch and Seneca
His two favorite moral authors are compared: Plutarch guides us, Seneca pushes us.
Quant à mon autre leçon, qui mesle vn peu plus de fruit au plaisir, par où i’apprens à renger mes opinions et conditions, les liures qui m’y seruent, c’est Plutarque, dépuis qu’il est François, et Seneque. Ils ont tous deux cette notable commodité pour mon humeur, que la science que i’y cherche, y est traictée à pieces décousues, qui ne demandent pas l’obligation d’vn long trauail, dequoy ie suis incapable. Ainsi sont les Opuscules de Plutarque et les Epistres de Seneque, qui sont la plus belle partie de leurs escrits, et la plus profitable. Il ne faut pas grande entreprinse pour m’y mettre, et les quitte où il me plaist. Car elles n’ont point de suite et dependance des vnes aux autres.
As for my other reading, which mixes a little more profit with the pleasure, and from which I learn to order my opinions and my conduct, the books that serve me are Plutarch, since he became French, and Seneca. They both have this notable advantage for my temperament: the knowledge I seek in them is treated in disconnected pieces, which do not impose the obligation of long labor, of which I am incapable. Such are Plutarch’s Moral Essays and Seneca’s Letters, which are the finest and most profitable part of their writings. It takes no great undertaking to get me into them, and I leave off wherever I please, for they have no sequence and do not depend on one another.
Ces autheurs se rencontrent en la plus part des opinions vtiles et vrayes: comme aussi leur fortune les fit naistre enuiron mesme siecle: tous deux precepteurs de deux Empereurs Romains: tous deux venus de pays estranger: tous deux riches et puissans. Leur instruction est de la cresme de la philosophie, et presentée d’vne simple façon et pertinente. Plutarque est plus vniforme et constant: Seneque plus ondoyant et diuers. Cettuy-cy se peine, se roidit et se tend pour armer la vertu contre la foiblesse, la crainte, et les vitieux appetis: l’autre semble n’estimer pas tant leur effort, et desdaigner d’en haster son pas et se mettre sur sa garde.
These authors agree in most of the useful and true opinions; and their fortune likewise had them born at about the same time. Both were tutors to Roman emperors; both came from foreign lands; both were rich and powerful. Their teaching is the cream of philosophy, presented in a simple and pertinent way. Plutarch is more uniform and constant; Seneca more undulating and diverse. Seneca toils, braces and strains to arm virtue against weakness, fear and vicious appetites; the other seems not to rate their power so highly, and disdains to quicken his pace or put himself on guard against them.
Plutarque a les opinions Platoniques, douces et accommodables à la societé ciuile: l’autre les a Stoïques et Epicuriennes, plus esloignées de l’vsage commun, mais selon moy plus commodes en particulier, et plus fermes. Il paroist en Seneque qu’il preste vn peu à la tyrannie des Empereurs de son temps: car ie tiens pour certain, que c’est d’vn iugement forcé, qu’il condamne la cause de ces genereux meurtriers de Cæsar: Plutarque est libre par tout. Seneque est plein de pointes et saillies, Plutarque de choses. Celuy là vous eschauffe plus, et vous esmeut, cestuy-cy vous contente d’auantage, et vous paye mieux: il nous guide, l’autre nous pousse.
Plutarch’s opinions are Platonic, mild and suited to civil society; the other’s are Stoic and Epicurean, further removed from common practice, but in my view better suited to private life, and firmer. It shows in Seneca that he yields a little to the tyranny of the emperors of his time; for I hold it certain that it is with a forced judgment that he condemns the cause of those noble-hearted murderers of Caesar. Plutarch is free throughout. Seneca is full of points and sallies, Plutarch of substance. The former warms you more and moves you; the latter satisfies you more and repays you better. He guides us; the other pushes us.
Cicero’s long preambles
Cicero’s prefaces and definitions bore him; he wants arguments that strike at once.
Quant à Cicero, les ouurages, qui me peuuent seruir chez luy à mon desseing, ce sont ceux qui traittent de la philosophie, specialement morale. Mais à confesser hardiment la verité (car puis qu’on a franchi les barrieres de l’impudence, il n’y a plus de bride) sa façon d’escrire me semble ennuyeuse: et toute autre pareille façon. Car ses prefaces, definitions, partitions, etymologies, consument la plus part de son ouurage. Ce qu’il y a de vif et de moüelle, est estouffé par ces longueries d’apprets.
As for Cicero, the works of his that can serve my purpose are those that deal with philosophy, especially moral philosophy. But to confess the truth boldly (for once you have crossed the barriers of impudence, there is no more holding back), his way of writing seems tedious to me, and so does every other way like it. His prefaces, definitions, divisions and etymologies use up most of his work. Whatever is lively and marrowy in it is smothered by these long-drawn-out preparations.
Si i’ay employé vne heure à le lire, qui est beaucoup pour moy, et que ie r’amentoiue ce que i’en ay tiré de suc et de substance, la plus part du temps ie n’y treuue que du vent: car il n’est pas encor venu aux argumens, qui seruent à son propos, et aux raisons qui touchent proprement le neud que ie cherche. Pour moy, qui ne demande qu’à deuenir plus sage, non plus sçauant ou eloquent, ces ordonnances logiciennes et Aristoteliques ne sont pas à propos. Ie veux qu’on commence par le dernier poinct: i’entens assez que c’est que mort, et volupté, qu’on ne s’amuse pas à les anatomizer. Ie cherche des raisons bonnes et fermes, d’arriuée, qui m’instruisent à en soustenir l’effort.
If I have spent an hour reading him, which is a lot for me, and I recall what juice and substance I have drawn from it, most of the time I find nothing but wind; for he has not yet come to the arguments that serve his purpose, or to the reasons that really touch the knot I am looking for. For me, who ask only to become wiser, not more learned or eloquent, these logical and Aristotelian arrangements are beside the point. I want a writer to begin with the last point. I understand well enough what death and pleasure are; let him not waste time dissecting them. I look for good, solid reasons from the outset, to teach me how to withstand their assault.
Ny les subtilitez grammairiennes, ny l’ingenieuse contexture de parolles et d’argumentations, n’y seruent. Ie veux des discours qui donnent la premiere charge dans le plus fort du doubte: les siens languissent autour du pot. Ils sont bons pour l’escole, pour le barreau, et pour le sermon, où nous auons loisir de sommeiller: et sommes encores vn quart d’heure apres, assez à temps, pour en retrouuer le fil. Il est besoin de parler ainsin aux iuges, qu’on veut gaigner à tort ou à droit, aux enfans, et au vulgaire, à qui il faut tout dire, et voir ce qui portera. Ie ne veux pas qu’on s’employe à me rendre attentif, et qu’on me crie cinquante fois, Or oyez, à la mode de nos heraux.
Neither grammatical subtleties nor the ingenious weaving of words and arguments are of any use here. I want reasonings that make their first charge at the strongest point of the doubt; his languish around the edges of the pot. They are good for the school, the bar and the pulpit, where we have leisure to doze off, and are still in good time, a quarter of an hour later, to pick up the thread. That is how one has to speak to judges whom one wants to win over, rightly or wrongly; to children; and to the common people, to whom one must say everything and see what hits home. I do not want anyone to labor to make me attentive, crying out to me fifty times, “Now hear this!” in the manner of our heralds.
Les Romains disoyent en leur religion, Hoc age: que nous disons en la nostre, Sursum corda, ce sont autant de parolles perdues pour moy. I’y viens tout preparé du logis: il ne me faut point d’alechement, ny de saulse: ie mange bien la viande toute crue: et au lieu de m’esguiser l’appetit par ces preparatoires et auant-ieux, on me le lasse et affadit. La licence du temps m’excusera elle de cette sacrilege audace, d’estimer aussi trainans les dialogismes de Platon mesme, estouffans par trop sa matiere? Et de pleindre le temps que met à ces longues interlocutions vaines et preparatoires, vn homme, qui auoit tant de meilleures choses à dire?
The Romans said in their religion, Attend to this, as we say in ours, Lift up your hearts: these are so many words wasted on me. I come from home fully prepared; I need no enticement and no sauce; I can eat my meat quite raw. And instead of whetting my appetite, these preliminaries and preambles tire it and dull it. Will the license of our times excuse me for this sacrilegious audacity of finding even Plato’s dialogues dragging too, smothering his matter far too much? And for lamenting the time that a man who had so many better things to say spends on these long, empty, preparatory exchanges?
Mon ignorance m’excusera mieux, sur ce que ie ne voy rien en la beauté de son langage. Ie demande en general les liures qui vsent des sciences, non ceux qui les dressent. Les deux premiers, et Pline, et leurs semblables, ils n’ont point de Hoc age, ils veulent auoir à faire à gens qui s’en soyent aduertis eux mesmes: ou s’ils en ont, c’est vn, Hoc age, substantiel et qui a son corps à part.
My ignorance will excuse me better, since I see nothing in the beauty of his language. In general I ask for books that make use of the sciences, not those that set them up. The first two, and Pliny, and their like, have no Attend to this; they want to deal with people who have alerted themselves. Or if they do have one, it is a substantial Attend to this, with a body of its own.
Ie voy aussi volontiers les Epistres ad Atticum, non seulement par ce qu’elles contiennent vne tresample instruction de l’Histoire et affaires de son temps: mais beaucoup plus pour y descouurir ses humeurs priuées. Car i’ay vne singuliere curiosité, comme i’ay dict ailleurs, de connoistre l’ame et les naïfs iugemens de mes autheurs. Il faut bien iuger leur suffisance, mais non pas leurs mœurs, ny eux par cette montre de leurs escris, qu’ils étalent au theatre du monde. I’ay mille fois regretté, que nous ayons perdu le liure que Brutus auoit escrit de la vertu: car il fait bel apprendre la theorique de ceux qui sçauent bien la practique.
I also enjoy reading the letters to Atticus, not only because they contain very ample instruction on the history and affairs of his time, but much more to discover his private temperament in them. For I have a singular curiosity, as I have said elsewhere, to know the soul and the natural judgments of my authors. We must indeed judge their ability, but not their character, nor themselves, by the display of their writings that they put on in the theater of the world. I have regretted a thousand times that we have lost the book Brutus wrote on virtue; for it is a fine thing to learn the theory from those who know the practice well.
Mais d’autant que c’est autre chose le presche, que le prescheur: i’ayme bien autant voir Brutus chez Plutarque, que chez luy-mesme. Ie choisiroy plustost de sçauoir au vray les deuis qu’il tenoit en sa tente, à quelqu’vn de ses priuez amis, la veille d’vne bataille, que les propos qu’il tint le lendemain à son armée: et qu’il faisoit en son cabinet et en sa chambre, que ce qu’il faisoit emmy la place et au Senat.
But since the sermon is one thing and the preacher another, I like seeing Brutus in Plutarch just as much as in his own work. I would rather know truly what he talked about in his tent with one of his intimate friends on the eve of a battle than the speech he made to his army the next day; and what he did in his study and his bedroom than what he did in the public square and the Senate.
Quant à Cicero, ie suis du iugement commun, que hors la science, il n’y auoit pas beaucoup d’excellence en son ame: il estoit bon citoyen, d’vne nature debonnaire, comme sont volontiers les hommes gras, et gosseurs, tel qu’il estoit, mais de mollesse et de vanité ambitieuse, il en auoit sans mentir beaucoup. Et si ne sçay comment l’excuser d’auoir estimé sa poësie digne d’estre mise en lumiere. Ce n’est pas grande imperfection, que de mal faire des vers, mais c’est imperfection de n’auoir pas senty combien ils estoyent indignes de la gloire de son nom. Quant à son eloquence, elle est du tout hors de comparaison, ie croy que iamais homme ne l’egalera.
As for Cicero, I share the common judgment that, apart from his learning, there was not much excellence in his soul. He was a good citizen, of a kindly nature, as fat and jesting men like him tend to be; but of softness and ambitious vanity he had, to tell the truth, a great deal. And I do not know how to excuse him for having thought his poetry worth publishing. It is no great imperfection to write bad verse; but it is an imperfection not to have sensed how unworthy his verses were of the glory of his name. As for his eloquence, it is wholly beyond comparison; I believe no man will ever equal it.
Le ieune Cicero, qui n’a ressemblé son pere que de nom, commandant en Asie, il se trouua vn iour en sa table plusieurs estrangers, et entre autres Cæstius assis au bas bout, comme on se fourre souuent aux tables ouuertes des grands: Cicero s’informa qui il estoit à l’vn de ses gents, qui luy dit son nom: mais comme celuy qui songeoit ailleurs, et qui oublioit ce qu’on luy respondoit, il le luy redemanda encore dépuis deux ou trois fois: le seruiteur pour n’estre plus en peine de luy redire si souuent mesme chose, et pour le luy faire cognoistre par quelque circonstance, C’est, dit-il, ce Cæstius de qui on vous a dict, qu’il ne fait pas grand estat de l’eloquence de vostre pere au prix de la sienne: Cicero s’estant soudain picqué de cela, commanda qu’on empoignast ce pauure Cæstius, et le fit tres-bien fouëter en sa presence: voyla vn mal courtois hoste.
Young Cicero, who resembled his father only in name, was commanding in Asia when one day several strangers happened to be at his table, among them Cestius, seated at the lower end, as people often push their way in at the open tables of the great. Cicero asked one of his men who he was, and the man told him his name. But like someone whose mind was elsewhere and who forgot what he was told, he asked again two or three times afterward. The servant, to spare himself the trouble of repeating the same thing so often, and to make him know the man by some circumstance, said: “It is that Cestius who, you were told, does not think much of your father’s eloquence compared with his own.” Cicero, suddenly stung by this, ordered that poor Cestius to be seized and had him soundly flogged in his presence. There’s a discourteous host for you.
Entre ceux mesmes, qui ont estimé toutes choses contées cette sienne eloquence incomparable, il y en a eu, qui n’ont pas laissé d’y remerquer des fautes. Comme ce grand Brutus son amy, disoit que c’estoit vne eloquence cassée et esrenée, fractam et elumbem. Les orateurs voisins de son siecle, reprenoyent aussi en luy, ce curieux soing de certaine longue cadance, au bout de ses clauses, et notoient ces mots, esse videatur, qu’il y employe si souuent. Pour moy, i’ayme mieux vne cadance qui tombe plus court, coupée en yambes. Si mesle il par fois bien rudement ses nombres, mais rarement. I’en ay remerqué ce lieu à mes aureilles. Ego verò me minus diu senem esse mallem, quàm esse senem, antequam essem.
Even among those who have judged this eloquence of his incomparable, all things considered, there have been some who did not fail to note faults in it. Thus the great Brutus, his friend, said that it was a broken eloquence, weak in the back: broken and loinless. Orators close to his century also criticized in him his elaborate care for a certain long cadence at the end of his periods, and remarked on the words it would seem to be, which he uses so often. For my part, I prefer a cadence that falls shorter, cut into iambs. Yet he does sometimes jumble his rhythms quite roughly, though rarely. My ears have noted this passage: For my part, I would rather be old for a shorter time than be old before my time.
Historians
He prefers simple chroniclers or excellent ones, and above all Caesar and Plutarch’s lives.
Les historiens sont ma droitte bale: car ils sont plaisans et aysez: et quant et quant l’homme en general, de qui ie cherche la cognoissance, y paroist plus vif et plus entier qu’en nul autre lieu: la varieté et verité de ses conditions internes, en gros et en detail, la diuersité des moyens de son assemblage, et des accidents qui le menacent. Or ceux qui escriuent les vies, d’autant qu’ils s’amusent plus aux conseils qu’aux euenemens: plus à ce qui part du dedans, qu’à ce qui arriue au dehors: ceux là me sont plus propres. Voyla pourquoy en toutes sortes, c’est mon homme que Plutarque. Ie suis bien marry que nous n’ayons vne douzaine de Laërtius, ou qu’il ne soit plus estendu, ou plus entendu.
Historians are right in my court, for they are pleasant and easy; and at the same time man in general, whom I seek to know, appears in them more alive and more whole than anywhere else: the variety and truth of his inner qualities, in the mass and in detail, the diversity of the ways he is put together, and of the accidents that threaten him. Now those who write lives, since they dwell more on intentions than on events, more on what comes from within than on what happens outside, suit me best. That is why, in every way, Plutarch is my man. I am very sorry that we do not have a dozen Laertiuses, or that he is not more ample or more able.
Car ie suis pareillement curieux de cognoistre les fortunes et la vie de ces grands precepteurs du monde, comme de cognoistre la diuersité de leurs dogmes et fantasies. En ce genre d’estude des Histoires, il faut feuilleter sans distinction toutes sortes d’autheurs et vieils et nouueaux, et barragouins et François, pour y apprendre les choses, dequoy diuersement ils traictent.
For I am just as curious to know the fortunes and lives of these great teachers of the world as to know the diversity of their doctrines and notions. In this kind of historical study, one must leaf through all sorts of authors without distinction, old and new, in outlandish tongues and in French, to learn the things they treat in their various ways.
Mais Cæsar singulierement me semble meriter qu’on l’estudie, non pour la science de l’Histoire seulement, mais pour luy mesme: tant il a de perfection et d’excellence par dessus tous les autres: quoy que Salluste soit du nombre. Certes ie lis cet autheur auec vn peu plus de reuerence et de respect, qu’on ne lit les humains ouurages: tantost le considerant luy-mesme par ses actions, et le miracle de sa grandeur: tantost la pureté et inimitable polissure de son langage, qui a surpassé non seulement tous les historiens, comme dit Cicero, mais à l’aduenture Cicero mesme.
But Caesar in particular seems to me to deserve study, not only for the knowledge of history but for himself, so far does his perfection and excellence rise above all the others, though Sallust is one of them. Indeed I read this author with a little more reverence and respect than one reads human works: sometimes considering the man himself through his actions and the miracle of his greatness, sometimes the purity and inimitable polish of his language, which surpassed not only all historians, as Cicero says, but perhaps even Cicero himself.
Auec tant de syncerité en ses iugemens, parlant de ses ennemis, que sauf les fausses couleurs, dequoy il veut couurir sa mauuaise cause, et l’ordure de sa pestilente ambition, ie pense qu’en cela seul on y puisse trouuer à redire, qu’il a esté trop espargnant à parler de soy: car tant de grandes choses ne peuuent auoir esté executées par luy, qu’il n’y soit allé beaucoup plus du sien, qu’il n’y en met.
There is such sincerity in his judgments when he speaks of his enemies that, apart from the false colors with which he tries to cover his bad cause and the filth of his pestilent ambition, I think the only fault one can find in him is that he was too sparing in speaking of himself. For so many great things cannot have been carried out by him without his own share in them being much greater than he puts in.
I’ayme les historiens, ou fort simples, ou excellens. Les simples, qui n’ont point dequoy y mesler quelque chose du leur, et qui n’y apportent que le soin, et la diligence de r’amasser tout ce qui vient à leur notice, et d’enregistrer à la bonne foy toutes choses, sans chois et sans triage, nous laissent le iugement entier, pour la cognoissance de la verité. Tel est entre autres pour exemple, le bon Froissard, qui a marché en son entreprise d’vne si franche naïfueté, qu’ayant faict vne faute, il ne craint aucunement de la recognoistre et corriger, en l’endroit, où il en a esté aduerty: et qui nous represente la diuersité mesme des bruits qui couroyent, et les differens rapports qu’on luy faisoit.
I like historians who are either very simple or excellent. The simple ones, who have nothing of their own to mix in, and who bring only the care and diligence to gather everything that comes to their notice and to record everything in good faith, without choosing or sorting, leave our judgment intact for discerning the truth. Such, for example, among others, is good Froissart, who went about his undertaking with such frank naturalness that, having made a mistake, he is not in the least afraid to acknowledge and correct it at the point where he was told of it; and who gives us even the diversity of the rumors that were going around and the different reports that were made to him.
C’est la matiere de l’Histoire nuë et informe: chacun en peut faire son profit autant qu’il a d’entendement. Les bien excellens ont la suffisance de choisir ce qui est digne d’estre sçeu, peuuent trier de deux rapports celuy qui est plus vray-semblable: de la condition des Princes et de leurs humeurs, ils en concluent les conseils, et leur attribuent les paroles conuenables: ils ont raison de prendre l’authorité de regler nostre creance à la leur: mais certes cela n’appartient à gueres de gens.
That is the raw material of history, bare and unshaped; each person can profit from it as far as his understanding allows. The truly excellent ones have the ability to choose what is worth knowing; they can pick out, of two reports, the more likely one; from the situation and temperament of princes they infer their intentions and attribute fitting words to them. They are right to take on the authority to regulate our belief by theirs; but certainly that belongs to very few people.
Ceux d’entre-deux, qui est la plus commune façon, ceux là nous gastent tout: ils veulent nous mascher les morceaux; ils se donnent loy de iuger et par consequent d’incliner l’Histoire à leur fantasie: car depuis que le iugement pend d’vn costé, on ne se peut garder de contourner et tordre la narration à ce biais. Ils entreprennent de choisir les choses dignes d’estre sçeuës, et nous cachent souuent telle parole, telle action priuée, qui nous instruiroit mieux: obmettent pour choses incroyables celles qu’ils n’entendent pas: et peut estre encore telle chose pour ne la sçauoir dire en bon Latin ou François.
Those in between, who are the commonest kind, spoil everything for us. They want to chew our food for us; they give themselves license to judge, and consequently to bend history to their own notion. For once judgment leans to one side, one cannot help turning and twisting the narrative in that direction. They take it upon themselves to choose the things worth knowing, and often hide from us some word, some private action, that would teach us more; they leave out as incredible the things they do not understand, and perhaps some things too because they cannot express them in good Latin or French.
Qu’ils estalent hardiment leur eloquence et leur discours: qu’ils iugent à leur poste, mais qu’ils nous laissent aussi dequoy iuger apres eux: et qu’ils n’alterent ny dispensent par leurs racourcimens et par leur choix, rien sur le corps de la matiere: ains qu’ils nous la r’enuoyent pure et entiere en toutes ses dimensions.
Let them boldly display their eloquence and their reasoning; let them judge as they please; but let them also leave us something to judge after them. And let them neither alter nor rearrange anything in the body of the material by their abridgments and their choices, but hand it on to us pure and whole in all its dimensions.
Le plus souuent on trie pour cette charge, et notamment en ces siecles icy, des personnes d’entre le vulgaire, pour cette seule consideration de sçauoir bien parler: comme si nous cherchions d’y apprendre la grammaire: et eux ont raison n’ayans esté gagez que pour cela, et n’ayans mis en vente que le babil, de ne se soucier aussi principalement que de cette partie. Ainsin à force de beaux mots ils nous vont patissant vne belle contexture des bruits, qu’ils ramassent és carrefours des villes. Les seules bonnes Histoires sont celles, qui ont esté escrites par ceux mesmes qui commandoient aux affaires, ou qui estoient participans à les conduire, ou au moins qui ont eu la fortune d’en conduire d’autres de mesme sorte.
Most often, and especially in these times of ours, people are chosen for this task from among the common sort, for the sole reason that they know how to speak well—as if what we were looking to learn from it were grammar! And they are right, having been hired only for that and having put nothing up for sale but their chatter, to care mainly about that part. So, by dint of fine words, they knead us a fine pastry out of the rumors they pick up at the town crossroads. The only good histories are those written by the very men who were in command of affairs, or who had a part in conducting them, or who at least had the fortune to conduct others of the same kind.
Telles sont quasi toutes les Grecques et Romaines. Car plusieurs tesmoings oculaires ayans escrit de mesme subiect (comme il aduenoit en ce temps là, que la grandeur et le sçauoir se rencontroient communement) s’il y a de la faute, elle doit estre merueilleusement legere, et sur vn accident fort doubteux. Que peut on esperer d’vn medecin traictant de la guerre, ou d’vn escholier traictant les desseins des Princes?
Such are almost all the Greek and Roman ones. For when several eyewitnesses have written on the same subject (as happened in those times, when greatness and learning commonly went together), if there is any error it must be marvelously slight, and about some very doubtful incident. What can one expect from a doctor writing about war, or a scholar writing about the designs of princes?
Si nous voulons remerquer la religion, que les Romains auoient en cela, il n’en faut que cet exemple: Asinius Pollio trouuoit és histoires mesme de Cæsar quelque mesconte, en quoy il estoit tombé, pour n’auoir peu ietter les yeux en tous les endroits de son armée, et en auoir creu les particuliers, qui luy rapportoient souuent des choses non assez verifiées, ou bien pour n’auoir esté assez curieusement aduerty par ses lieutenans des choses, qu’ils auoient conduites en son absence.
If we want to see how scrupulous the Romans were in this, we need only this example. Asinius Pollio found, even in Caesar’s histories, some errors he had fallen into—either because he had not been able to cast his eyes over every part of his army and had believed individuals who often reported to him things not sufficiently verified, or because he had not been informed carefully enough by his lieutenants of the operations they had conducted in his absence.
On peut voir par là, si cette recherche de la verité est delicate, qu’on ne se puisse pas fier d’vn combat à la science de celuy, qui y a commandé; ny aux soldats, de ce qui s’est passé pres d’eux, si à la mode d’vne information iudiciaire, on ne confronte les tesmoins, et reçoit les obiects sur la preuue des ponctilles, de chaque accident. Vrayement la connoissance que nous auons de nos affaires est bien plus lasche. Mais cecy a esté suffisamment traicté par Bodin, et selon ma conception.
You can see from this how delicate a thing this search for truth is, since one cannot trust the knowledge of the man who commanded a battle about that battle, nor the soldiers about what happened near them, unless, as in a judicial inquiry, the witnesses are confronted and objections are admitted on proof of the finest details of each incident. Truly, the knowledge we have of our own affairs is much looser. But this has been treated sufficiently by Bodin, and in line with my own view.
Notes in the back of his books
He copies out the verdicts he wrote on Guicciardini, Commynes and the du Bellay memoirs.
Pour subuenir vn peu à la trahison de ma memoire, et à son defaut, si extreme, qu’il m’est aduenu plus d’vne fois, de reprendre en main des liures, comme recents, et à moy inconnus, que i’auoy leu soigneusement quelques années au parauant, et barbouillé de mes notes: i’ay pris en coustume dépuis quelque temps, d’adiouster au bout de chasque liure, ie dis de ceux desquels ie ne me veux seruir qu’vne fois, le temps auquel i’ay acheué de le lire, et le iugement que i’en ay retiré en gros: à fin que cela me represente au moins l’air et idée generale que i’auois conceu de l’autheur en le lisant. Ie veux icy transcrire aucunes de ces annotations.
To make up a little for the treachery of my memory and its failing—so extreme that it has happened to me more than once to pick up again, as new and unknown to me, books I had read carefully a few years before and scribbled over with my notes—I have made it my custom for some time now to add at the end of each book (I mean those I intend to use only once) the date when I finished reading it and the judgment I formed of it as a whole, so that this may at least bring back to me the general air and idea I had conceived of the author while reading him. I want to transcribe some of these annotations here.
Voicy ce que ie mis il y a enuiron dix ans en mon Guicciardin: car quelque langue que parlent mes liures, ie leur parle en la mienne. Il est historiographe diligent, et duquel à mon aduis, autant exactement que de nul autre, on peut apprendre la verité des affaires de son temps: aussi en la pluspart en a-t-il esté acteur luy mesme, et en rang honnorable. Il n’y a aucune apparence que par haine, faueur, ou vanité il ayt déguisé les choses: dequoy font foy les libres iugemens qu’il donne des grands: et notamment de ceux, par lesquels il auoit esté auancé, et employé aux charges, comme du Pape Clement septiesme.
Here is what I wrote about ten years ago in my Guicciardini (for whatever language my books speak, I speak to them in mine): He is a diligent historian, from whom, in my opinion, one can learn the truth about the affairs of his time as exactly as from anyone; indeed, in most of them he was himself an actor, and in an honorable rank. There is no sign that he disguised things out of hatred, favor or vanity. The free judgments he passes on the great bear witness to this, notably on those who had advanced him and employed him in office, such as Pope Clement VII.
Quant à la partie dequoy il semble se vouloir preualoir le plus, qui sont ses digressions et discours, il y en a de bons et enrichis de beaux traits, mais il s’y est trop pleu. Car pour ne vouloir rien laisser à dire, ayant vn suiect si plain et ample et à peu pres infiny, il en deuient lasche, et sentant vn peu le caquet scholastique.
As for the part he seems to want to pride himself on most, namely his digressions and reflections, there are good ones, enriched with fine touches; but he took too much pleasure in them. For in not wanting to leave anything unsaid, with a subject so full and ample and almost infinite, he becomes slack and smacks a little of scholastic chatter.
I’ay aussi remerqué cecy, que de tant d’ames et effects qu’il iuge, de tant de mouuemens et conseils, il n’en rapporte iamais vn seul à la vertu, religion, et conscience: comme si ces parties là estoyent du tout esteintes au monde: et de toutes les actions, pour belles par apparence qu’elles soient d’elles mesmes, il en reiecte la cause à quelque occasion vitieuse, ou à quelque proufit. Il est impossible d’imaginer, que parmy cet infiny nombre d’actions, dequoy il iuge, il n’y en ait eu quelqu’vne produite par la voye de la raison. Nulle corruption peut auoir saisi les hommes si vniuersellement, que quelqu’vn n’eschappe de la contagion.
I have also noticed this: of all the souls and deeds he judges, of all the motives and intentions, he never attributes a single one to virtue, religion or conscience, as if those qualities were entirely extinct in the world. And for every action, however fine it may appear in itself, he throws the cause back on some vicious motive or some profit. It is impossible to imagine that among the infinite number of actions he judges there was not at least one produced by way of reason. No corruption can have seized men so universally that someone does not escape the contagion.
Cela me fait craindre qu’il y aye vn peu de vice de son goust, et peut estre aduenu, qu’il ait estimé d’autruy selon soy.
This makes me fear that there was some flaw in his own taste, and that he may have judged others by himself.
En mon Philippe de Comines, il y a cecy: Vous y trouuerez le langage doux et aggreable, d’vne naïfue simplicité, la narration pure, et en laquelle la bonne foy de l’autheur reluit euidemment, exempte de vanité parlant de soy, et d’affection et d’enuie parlant d’autruy: ses discours et enhortemens, accompaignez, plus de bon zele et de verité, que d’aucune exquise suffisance, et tout par tout de l’authorité et grauité, representant son homme de bon lieu, et éleué aux grans affaires.
In my Philippe de Commynes there is this: You will find here a gentle and pleasant language, of natural simplicity; a pure narrative, in which the author’s good faith shines out clearly, free of vanity when he speaks of himself and of partiality and envy when he speaks of others; his reflections and exhortations marked more by good zeal and truth than by any exquisite ability; and, throughout, authority and gravity, showing him to be a man of good family, brought up in great affairs.
Sur les Memoires de monsieur du Bellay: C’est toujours plaisir de voir les choses escrites par ceux, qui ont essayé comme il les faut conduire: mais il ne se peut nier qu’il ne se découure evidemment en ces deux Seigneurs icy vn grand dechet de la franchise et liberté d’escrire, qui reluit és anciens de leur sorte: comme au Sire de Iouinuille domestique de S. Loys, Eginard chancelier de Charlemaigne, et de plus fresche memoire en Philippe de Comines. C’est icy plustost vn plaidoyer pour le Roy François, contre l’Empereur Charles cinquiesme, qu’vne Histoire.
On the Memoirs of Monsieur du Bellay: It is always a pleasure to see things written by those who have tried out how they should be managed. But it cannot be denied that these two lords show a great falling-off from the frankness and freedom of writing that shine in the older writers of their kind—such as the Sire de Joinville, of the household of Saint Louis; Einhard, chancellor of Charlemagne; and, more recently, Philippe de Commynes. This is a plea for King Francis against the Emperor Charles V rather than a history.
Ie ne veux pas croire, qu’ils ayent rien changé, quant au gros du faict, mais de contourner le iugement des euenemens souuent contre raison, à nostre auantage, et d’obmettre tout ce qu’il y a de chatouilleux en la vie de leur maistre, ils en font mestier: tesmoing les reculemens de Messieurs de Montmorency et de Brion, qui y sont oubliez, voire le seul nom de Madame d’Estampes, ne s’y trouue point. On peut couurir les actions secrettes, mais de taire ce que tout le monde sçait, et les choses qui ont tiré des effects publiques, et de telle consequence, c’est vn defaut inexcusable. Somme pour auoir l’entiere connoissance du Roy François, et des choses aduenuës de son temps, qu’on s’addresse ailleurs, si on m’en croit.
I am unwilling to believe that they changed anything in the main facts; but they make a practice of twisting the judgment of events in our favor, often against reason, and of omitting everything ticklish in their master’s life. Witness the disgraces of Messieurs de Montmorency and de Brion, which are left out; indeed, the very name of Madame d’Étampes is nowhere to be found. Secret actions may be covered up; but to keep silent about what everyone knows, and about things that have had public effects of such consequence, is an inexcusable fault. In short, if you want a full knowledge of King Francis and of what happened in his time, look elsewhere, if you take my advice.
Ce qu’on peut faire icy de profit, c’est par la deduction particuliere des batailles et exploits de guerre, où ces Gentils-hommes se sont trouuez: quelques paroles et actions priuées d’aucuns Princes de leur temps, et les pratiques et negociations conduites par le Seigneur de Langeay, où il y a tout plein de choses dignes d’estre sceues, et des discours non vulgaires.
Whatever profit can be had here lies in the detailed account of the battles and feats of arms in which these gentlemen took part; in some private words and actions of certain princes of their time; and in the dealings and negotiations conducted by the Seigneur de Langey, which contain plenty of things worth knowing, and reflections out of the ordinary.