Imaginary Conversations and Poems Part 6

_Anne._ Which may it be, my liege?

_Henry._ Which may it be? Pestilence! I marvel that the walls of this tower do not crack around thee at such impiety.

_Anne._ I would be instructed by the wisest of theologians: such is your Highness.

_Henry._ Are the sins of the body, foul as they are, comparable to those of the soul?

_Anne._ When they are united, they must be worse.

_Henry._ Go on, go on: thou pushest thy own breast against the sword.

G.o.d hath deprived thee of thy reason for thy punishment. I must hear more: proceed, I charge thee.

_Anne._ An apt.i.tude to believe one thing rather than another, from ignorance or weakness, or from the more persuasive manner of the teacher, or from his purity of life, or from the strong impression of a particular text at a particular time, and various things beside, may influence and decide our opinion; and the hand of the Almighty, let us hope, will fall gently on human fallibility.

_Henry._ Opinion in matters of faith! rare wisdom! rare religion!

Troth, Anne! thou hast well sobered me. I came rather warmly and lovingly; but these light ringlets, by the holy rood, shall not shade this shoulder much longer. Nay, do not start; I tap it for the last time, my sweetest. If the Church permitted it, thou shouldst set forth on thy long journey with the Eucharist between thy teeth, however loath.

_Anne._ Love your Elizabeth, my honoured lord, and G.o.d bless you! She will soon forget to call me. Do not chide her: think how young she is.

Could I, could I kiss her, but once again! it would comfort my heart--or break it.

JOSEPH SCALIGER AND MONTAIGNE

_Montaigne._ What could have brought you, M. de l'Escale, to visit the old man of the mountain, other than a good heart? Oh, how delighted and charmed I am to hear you speak such excellent Gascon. You rise early, I see: you must have risen with the sun, to be here at this hour; it is a stout half-hour's walk from the brook. I have capital white wine, and the best cheese in Auvergne. You saw the goats and the two cows before the castle.

Pierre, thou hast done well: set it upon the table, and tell Master Matthew to split a couple of chickens and broil them, and to pepper but one. Do you like pepper, M. de l'Escale?

_Scaliger._ Not much.

_Montaigne._ Hold hard! let the pepper alone: I hate it. Tell him to broil plenty of ham; only two slices at a time, upon his salvation.

_Scaliger._ This, I perceive, is the antechamber to your library: here are your everyday books.

_Montaigne._ Faith! I have no other. These are plenty, methinks; is not that your opinion?

_Scaliger._ You have great resources within yourself, and therefore can do with fewer.

_Montaigne._ Why, how many now do you think here may be?

_Scaliger._ I did not believe at first that there could be above fourscore.

_Montaigne._ Well! are fourscore few?--are we talking of peas and beans?

_Scaliger._ I and my father (put together) have written well-nigh as many.

_Montaigne._ Ah! to write them is quite another thing: but one reads books without a spur, or even a pat from our Lady Vanity. How do you like my wine?--it comes from the little knoll yonder: you cannot see the vines, those chestnut-trees are between.

_Scaliger._ The wine is excellent; light, odoriferous, with a smartness like a sharp child's prattle.

_Montaigne._ It never goes to the head, nor pulls the nerves, which many do as if they were guitar-strings. I drink a couple of bottles a day, winter and summer, and never am the worse for it. You gentlemen of the Agennois have better in your province, and indeed the very best under the sun. I do not wonder that the Parliament of Bordeaux should be jealous of their privileges, and call it Bordeaux. Now, if you prefer your own country wine, only say it: I have several bottles in my cellar, with corks as long as rapiers, and as polished. I do not know, M. de l'Escale, whether you are particular in these matters: not quite, I should imagine, so great a judge in them as in others?

_Scaliger._ I know three things: wine, poetry, and the world.

_Montaigne._ You know one too many, then. I hardly know whether I know anything about poetry; for I like Clem Marot better than Ronsard.

Ronsard is so plaguily stiff and stately, where there is no occasion for it; I verily do think the man must have slept with his wife in a cuira.s.s.

_Scaliger._ It pleases me greatly that you like Marot. His versions of the Psalms is lately set to music, and added to the New Testament of Geneva.

_Montaigne._ It is putting a slice of honeycomb into a barrel of vinegar, which will never grow the sweeter for it.

_Scaliger._ Surely, you do not think in this fas.h.i.+on of the New Testament!

_Montaigne._ Who supposes it? Whatever is mild and kindly is there.

But Jack Calvin has thrown bird-lime and vitriol upon it, and whoever but touches the cover dirties his fingers or burns them.

_Scaliger._ Calvin is a very great man, I do a.s.sure you, M. de Montaigne.

_Montaigne._ I do not like your great men who beckon me to them, call me their begotten, their dear child, and their entrails; and, if I happen to say on any occasion, 'I beg leave, sir, to dissent a little from you,' stamp and cry, 'The devil you do!' and whistle to the executioner.

_Scaliger._ You exaggerate, my worthy friend!

_Montaigne._ Exaggerate do I, M. de l'Escale? What was it he did the other day to the poor devil there with an odd name?--Melancthon, I think it is.

_Scaliger._ I do not know: I have received no intelligence of late from Geneva.

_Montaigne._ It was but last night that our curate rode over from Lyons (he made two days of it, as you may suppose) and supped with me.

He told me that Jack had got his old friend hanged and burned. I could not join him in the joke, for I find none such in the New Testament, on which he would have founded it; and, if it is one, it is not in my manner or to my taste.

_Scaliger._ I cannot well believe the report, my dear sir. He was rather urgent, indeed, on the combustion of the heretic Michael Servetus some years past.

_Montaigne._ A thousand to one, my spiritual guide mistook the name.

He has heard of both, I warrant him, and thinks in his conscience that either is as good a roast as the other.

_Scaliger._ Theologians are proud and intolerant, and truly the farthest of all men from theology, if theology means the rational sense of religion, or indeed has anything to do with it in any way.

Melancthon was the very best of the reformers; quiet, sedate, charitable, intrepid, firm in friends.h.i.+p, ardent in faith, acute in argument, and profound in learning.

_Montaigne._ Who cares about his argumentation or his learning, if he was the rest?

_Scaliger._ I hope you will suspend your judgment on this affair until you receive some more certain and positive information.

_Montaigne._ I can believe it of the Sieur Calvin.

_Scaliger._ I cannot. John Calvin is a grave man, orderly and reasonable.

_Montaigne._ In my opinion he has not the order nor the reason of my cook. Mat never took a man for a sucking-pig, cleaning and sc.r.a.ping and b.u.t.tering and roasting him; nor ever twitched G.o.d by the sleeve and swore He should not have His own way.