historical lectures and essays(查尔斯金斯利历史讲座)-第31章
按键盘上方向键 ← 或 → 可快速上下翻页,按键盘上的 Enter 键可回到本书目录页,按键盘上方向键 ↑ 可回到本页顶部!
————未阅读完?加入书签已便下次继续阅读!
grandfather a spendthrift; he and his seven brothers and sisters were
brought up by a widowed mother; Agnes Heriotof whom one wishes to
know more; for the rule that great sons have great mothers probably holds
good in her case。 George gave signs; while at the village school; of future
scholarship; and when he was only fourteen; his uncle James sent him to
the University of Paris。 Those were hard times; and the youths; or rather
boys; who meant to bee scholars; had a cruel life of it; cast desperately
out on the wide world to beg and starve; either into self…restraint and
success; or into ruin of body and soul。 And a cruel life George had。
104
… Page 105…
Historical Lectures and Essays
Within two years he was down in a severe illness; his uncle dead; his
supplies stopped; and the boy of sixteen got home; he does not tell how。
Then he tried soldiering; and was with Albany's French Auxiliaries at the
ineffectual attack on Wark Castle。 Marching back through deep snow; he
got a fresh illness; which kept him in bed all winter。 Then he and his
brother were sent to St。 Andrews; where he got his B。A。 at nineteen。 The
next summer he went to France once more; and 〃fell;〃 he says; 〃into the
flames of the Lutheran sect; which was then spreading far and wide。〃
Two years of penury followed; and then three years of school…mastering in
the College of St。 Barbe; which he has immortalisedat least; for the few
who care to read modern Latin poetryin his elegy on 〃The Miseries of a
Parisian Teacher of the Humanities。〃 The wretched regent…master; pale
and suffering; sits up all night preparing his lecture; biting his nails and
thumping his desk; and falls asleep for a few minutes; to start up at the
sound of the four…o'clock bell; and be in school by five; his Virgil in one
hand; and his rod in the other; trying to do work on his own account at old
manuscripts; and bawling all the while at his wretched boys; who cheat
him; and pay each other to answer to truants' names。 The class is all
wrong。 〃One is barefoot; another's shoe is burst; another cries; another
writes home。 Then es the rod; the sound of blows; and howls; and
the day passes in tears。〃 〃Then mass; then another lesson; then more
blows; there is hardly time to eat。〃 I have no space to finish the picture
of the stupid misery which; Buchanan says; was ruining his intellect; while
it starved his body。 However; happier days came。 Gilbert Kennedy;
Earl of Cassilis; who seems to have been a noble young gentleman; took
him as his tutor for the next five years; and with him he went back to
Scotland。
But there his plain speaking got him; as it did more than once
afterward; into trouble。 He took it into his head to write; in imitation of
Dunbar; a Latin poem; in which St。 Francis asks him in a dream to bee
a Gray Friar; and Buchanan answered in language which had the
unpleasant fault of being too clever; andto judge from contemporary
105
… Page 106…
Historical Lectures and Essays
evidenceonly too true。 The friars said nothing at first; but when King
James made Buchanan tutor to one of his natural sons; they; 〃men
professing meekness; took the matter somewhat more angrily than befitted
men so pious in the opinion of the people。〃 So Buchanan himself puts it:
but; to do the poor friars justice; they must have been angels; not men; if
they did not writhe somewhat under the scourge which he had laid on
them。 To be told that there was hardly a place in heaven for monks; was
hard to hear and bear。 They accused him to the king of heresy; but not
being then in favour with James; they got no answer; and Buchanan was
manded to repeat the castigation。 Having found out that the friars
were not to be touched with impunity; he wrote; he says; a short and
ambiguous poem。 But the king; who loved a joke; demanded something
sharp and stinging; and Buchanan obeyed by writing; but not publishing;
〃The Franciscans;〃 a long satire; pared to which the 〃Somnium〃 was
bland and merciful。 The storm rose。 Cardinal Beaten; Buchanan says;
wanted to buy him of the king; and then; of course; burn him; as he had
just burnt five poor souls; so; knowing James's avarice; he fled to England;
through freebooters and pestilence。
There he found; he says; 〃men of both factions being burned on the
same day and in the same fire〃a pardonable exaggeration〃by Henry
VIII。; in his old age more intent on his own safety than on the purity of
religion。〃 So to his beloved France he went again; to find his enemy
Beaten ambassador at Paris。 The capital was too hot to hold him; and he
fled south to Bordeaux; to Andrea Govea; the Portuguese principal of the
College of Guienne。 As Professor of Latin at Bordeaux; we find him
presenting a Latin poem to Charles V。; and indulging that fancy of his for
Latin poetry which seems to us nowadays a childish pedantry; which was
thenwhen Latin was the vernacular tongue of all scholarsa serious; if
not altogether a useful; pursuit。 Of his tragedies; so famous in their day
the 〃Baptist;〃 the 〃Medea;〃 the 〃Jephtha;〃 and the 〃Alcestis〃there is
neither space nor need to speak here; save to notice the bold declamations
in the 〃Baptist〃 against tyranny and priestcraft; and to notice also that
106
… Page 107…
Historical Lectures and Essays
these tragedies gained for the poor Scotsman; in the eyes of the best
scholars of Europe; a credit amounting almost to veneration。 When he
returned to Paris; he found occupation at once; and; as his Scots
biographers love to record; 〃three of the most learned men in the world
taught humanity in the same college;〃 viz。 Turnebus; Muretus; and
Buchanan。
Then followed a strange episode in his life。 A university had been
founded at Coimbra; in Portugal; and Andrea Govea had been invited to
bring thither what French savants he could collect。 Buchanan went to
Portugal with his brother Patrick; two more Scotsmen; Dempster and
Ramsay; and a goodly pany of French scholars; whose names and
histories may be read in the erudite pages of Dr。 Irving; went likewise。
All prospered in the new Temple of the Muses for a year or so。 Then its
high…priest; Govea; died; and; by a peripeteia too mon in those days
and countries; Buchanan and two of his friends migrated unwillingly from
the Temple of the Muses for that of Moloch; and found themselves in the
Inquisition。
Buchanan; it seems; had said that St。 Augustine was more of a
Lutheran than a Catholic on the question of the mass。 He and his friends
had eaten flesh in Lent; which; he says; almost everyone in Spain did。
But he was suspected; and with reason; as a heretic; the Gray Friars
formed but one brotherhood throughout Europe; and news among them
travelled surely if not fast; so that the story of the satire written in Scotland
had reached Portugal。 The culprits were imprisoned; examined; bullied
but not torturedfor a year and a half。 At the end of that time; the proofs
of heresy; it seems; were insufficient; but lest; says Buchanan with honest
pride; 〃they should get the reputation of having vainly tormented a man
not altogether unknown;〃 they sent him for some months to a monastery;
to be instructed by the monks。 〃The men;〃 he says; 〃were neither
inhuman nor bad; but utterly ignorant of religion;〃 and Buchanan solaced
himself during the intervals of their instructions; by beginning his La