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第31章

historical lectures and essays(查尔斯金斯利历史讲座)-第31章


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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。 



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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 



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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 



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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

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