Travels Through France And Italy, Tobias Smollett [love novels in english .TXT] 📗
- Author: Tobias Smollett
Book online «Travels Through France And Italy, Tobias Smollett [love novels in english .TXT] 📗». Author Tobias Smollett
Ignoring How Apt A Frenchman Is To Conceal A Number Of His Best
Qualities. Two Other Considerations Deserve Attention. The Race-Portrait
Was In Smollett's Day At The Very Height Of Its
Disreputable Reign. Secondly, We Must Remember How Very
Profoundly French Character Has Been Modified Since 1763, And
More Especially In Consequence Of The Cataclysms Of 1789 And
Part 4 Pg 201870.
Smollett's Vis Comica Is Conspicuous In The Account Of The
Coiffure Of The Period And Of The Superstitious Reverence Which A
Frenchman Of That Day Paid To His Hair. In Tracing The Origin Of
This Superstition He Exhibits Casually His Historical Learning.
The Crine Profuso And Barba Demissa Of The Reges Crinitos, As The
Merovingians Were Called, Are Often Referred To By Ancient
Chroniclers. Long Hair Was Identified With Right Of Succession,
As A Mark Of Royal Race, And The Maintenance Of Ancient
Tradition. A Tondu Signified A Slave, And Even Under The
Carolingians To Shave A Prince Meant To Affirm His Exclusion From
The Succession.
Part 5 Pg 21
A General Improvement In English Roads, Roadside Inns, And
Methods Of Conveyance Commenced About 1715. The Continental Roads
Lagged Behind, Until When Arthur Young Wrote In 1788-89 They Had
Got Badly Into Arrears. The Pace Of Locomotion Between Rome And
England Changed Very Little In Effect From The Days Of Julius
Caesar To Those Of George Iii. It Has Been Said With Point That
Trajan And Sir Robert Peel, Travelling Both At Their Utmost Speed
Achieved The Distance Between Rome And London In An Almost
Precisely Similar Space Of Time. Smollett Decided To Travel Post
Between Paris And Lyons, And He Found That The Journey Lasted
Full Five Days And Cost Upwards Of Thirty Guineas. [One Of The
Earliest Printed Road Books In Existence Gives The Posts Between
Paris And Lyons. This Tiny Duodecimo, Dated 1500, And More Than
Worth Its Weight In Gold Has Just Been Acquired By The British
Museum. On The Old Roman Routes, See Arnold's Lectures On Modern
History, 1842.] Of Roads There Was A Choice Between Two. The
Shorter Route By Nevers And Moulins Amounted To Just About Three
Hundred English Miles. The Longer Route By Auxerre And Dijon,
Which Smollett Preferred Extended To Three Hundred And Thirty
Miles. The Two Roads Diverged After Passing Fontainebleau, The
Shorter By Nemours And The Longer By Moret. The First Road Was
The Smoother, But Apart From The Chance Of Seeing The Vendange
The Route De Burgoyne Was Far The More Picturesque. Smollett's
Portraiture Of The Peasantry In The Less Cultivated Regions
Prepares The Mind For Young's Famous Description Of Those "Gaunt
Emblems Of Famine." In Burgundy The Doctor Says, "I Saw A Peasant
Ploughing The Ground With A Jackass, A Lean Cow, And A He-Goat
Yoked Together." His Vignette Of The Fantastic Petit-Maitre At
Sens, And His Own Abominable Rudeness, Is Worthy Of The Master
Hand That Drew The Poor Debtor Jackson In The Marshalsea In
Roderick Random.
Part 5 Pg 22
His Frank Avowal Of Ill Temper At The Time Deprives Our
Entertainment Of The Unamiable Tinge Of Which It Would Otherwise
Have Partaken. "The Truth Is, I Was That Day More Than Usually
Peevish, From The Bad Weather As Well As From The Dread Of A Fit
Of Asthma, With Which I Was Threatened. And I Daresay My
Appearance Seemed As Uncouth To Him As His Travelling Dress
Appeared To Me. I Had A Grey, Mourning Frock Under A Wide
Greatcoat, A Bob-Wig Without Powder, A Very Large Laced Hat, And
A Meagre, Wrinkled, Discontented Countenance."
From Lyons The Traveller Secured A Return Berline Going Back To
Avignon With Three Mules And A Voiturier Named Joseph. Joseph,
Though He Turned Out To Be An Ex-Criminal, Proved Himself The One
Frenchman Upon Whose Fidelity And Good Service Smollett Could
Look Back With Unfeigned Satisfaction. The Sight Of A Skeleton
Dangling From A Gibbet Near Valence Surprised From This Droll
Knave An Ejaculation And A Story, From Which It Appeared Only Too
Evident That He Had Been First The Comrade And Then The
Executioner Of One Of The Most Notorious Brigands Of The Century.
The Story As Told By Smollett Does Not Wholly Agree With The Best
Authenticated Particulars. The Dick Turpin Of Eighteenth Century
France, Mandrin Has Engendered Almost As Many Fables As His
English Congener. [See Maignien's Bibliographie Des Ecrits
Relatifs A Mandrin.] As Far As I Have Been Able To Discover, The
Great Freebooter Was Born At St. Etienne In May 1724. His Father
Having Been Killed In A Coining Affair, Mandrin Swore To Revenge
Him. He Deserted From The Army Accordingly, And Got Together A
Gang Of Contrebandiers, At The Head Of Which His Career In Savoy
And Dauphine Almost Resembles That Of One Of The Famous Guerilla
Chieftains Described In Hardman's Peninsular Scenes And Sketches.
Captured Eventually, Owing To The Treachery Of A Comrade, He Was
Put To Death On The Wheel At Valence On 26th May 1755. Five
Comrades Were Thrown Into Jail With Him; And One Of These
Obtained His Pardon On Condition Of Acting As Mandrin's
Executioner. Alas, Poor Joseph!
Three Experiences Smollett Had At This Season Which May Well Fall
To The Lot Of Road-Farers In France Right Down To The Present
Day. He Was Poisoned With Garlic, Surfeited With Demi-Roasted
Small Birds, And Astonished At The Solid Fare Of The Poorest
Looking Travellers. The Summer Weather, Romantic Scenery, And
Occasional Picnics, Which Smollett Would Have Liked To Repeat
Every Summer Under The Arches Of The Pont Du Gard--The Monument
Of Antiquity Which Of All, Excepting Only The Maison Carree At
Nimes, Most Excited His Enthusiastic Admiration, All Contributed
To Put Him Into An Abnormally Cheerful And Convalescent
Humour. . . .
Part 5 Pg 23
Smollett Now Bent His Steps Southwards To Montpellier. His
Baggage Had Gone In Advance. He Was Uncertain As Yet Whether To
Make Montpellier Or Nice His Headquarters In The South. Like
Toulouse And Tours, And Turin, Montpellier Was For A Period A
Mecca To English Health And Pleasure Seekers Abroad. A City Of No
Great Antiquity, But Celebrated From The Twelfth Century For Its
Schools Of Law And Physic, It Had Been Incorporated Definitely
With France Since 1382, And Its Name Recurs In French History
Both As The Home Of Famous Men In Great Number And As, Before And
After The Brief Pre-Eminence Of La Rochelle, The Rival Of Nimes
As Capital Of Protestantism In The South. Evelyn, Burnet, The Two
Youngs, Edward And Arthur, And Sterne Have All Left Us An
Impression Of The City. Prevented By Snow From Crossing The Mont
Cenis, John Locke Spent Two Winters There In The Days Of Charles
Ii. (1675-77), And May Have Pondered A Good Many Of The Problems
Of Toleration On A Soil Under Which The Heated Lava Of Religious
Strife Was Still Unmistakeable. And Smollett Must Almost Have
Jostled En Route Against The Celebrated Author Of The Wealth Of
Nations, Who Set Out With His Pupil For Toulouse In February
1764. A Letter To Hume Speaks Of The Number Of English In The
Neighbourhood Just A Month Later. Lomenie De Brienne Was Then In
Residence As Archbishop. In The Following November, Adam Smith
And His Charge Paid A Visit To Montpellier To Witness A Pageant
And Memorial, As It Was Supposed, Of A Freedom That Was Gone For
Ever, The Opening Of The States Of Languedoc. Antiquaries And
Philosophers Went To Moralise On The Spectacle In The Spirit In
Which Freeman Went To Andorra, Byron To The Site Of Troy, Or De
Tocqueville To America. It Was There That The Great Economist Met
Horne Tooke.
Smollett's More Practical And Immediate Object In Making This
Pilgrimage Was To Interview The Great Lung Specialist, Known
Locally To His Admiring Compatriots As The Boerhaave Of
Montpellier, Dr. Fizes. The Medical School Of Montpellier Was
Much In Evidence During The Third Quarter Of The Eighteenth
Century, And For The History Of Its Various Branches There Are
Extant Numerous Memoires Pour Servir, By Prunelle, Astruc, And
Others. Smollett Was Only Just In Time To Consult The Reigning
Oracle, For The "Illustrious" Dr. Fizes Died In The Following
Year. He Gives Us A Very Unfavourable Picture Of This "Great
Lanthorn Of Medicine," Who, Notwithstanding His Prodigious Age,
His Stoop, And His Wealth, Could Still Scramble Up Two Pairs For
A Fee Of Six Livres. More Than Is The Case With Most Medical
Patients, However, Should We Suspect Smollett Of Being Unduly
Captious. The Point As To How Far His Sketch Of The French Doctor
And His Diagnosis Was A True One, And How Far A Mere Caricature,
Due To Ill Health And Prejudice, Has Always Piqued My Curiosity.
But How To Resolve A Question Involving So Many Problems Not Of
Ordinary Therapeutic But Of Historical Medicine! In This
Difficulty I Bethought Me Most Fortunately Of Consulting An
Part 5 Pg 24Authority Probably Without A Rival In This Special Branch Of
Medical History, Dr. Norman Moore, Who With His Accustomed
Generosity Has Given Me The Following Most Instructive Diagnosis
Of The Whole Situation.
"I Have Read Smollett's Account Of His Illness
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