Nevv epistles of Mounsieur de Balzac. Translated out of French into English, by Sr. Richard Baker Knight. Being the second and third volumes

Another to her. LETTER XXIX.

MAdam, I will not take upon mee to give you thankes, for the good cheare you made mee; for, besides that I have none but Country Civilities, and when I have once said, Your humble servant, and your servant most humble; I am then at the end of my cōplemnts, and can goe no further. It were better yet to let you hold your advantage entire, and owe you that still, which I can never pay. I forbeare to speake of the dainties and abundance of your Table, enough to make one fat, that were in a Consumption; nor I speake not of the delicacy of your perfumes, in which you laid mee to

sleepe all night; to the end, that sending up sweet vapours into my braine, I might have in my i∣magination, none but pleasing visions. But Ma∣dam, what but Heaven can be comparable to the dainties of your Closet, and what can I name to represent sufficiently, those pure and spiritu∣all pleasures, which I tasted in your Conversa∣tion? It is not my designe, to talke idly, nor to set my stile upon the high straine; you know, I am bound to avoyde Hyperboles, as Mariners to avoyde Sands and Rockes; but this is most true, that with all my heart, I renounce the world, and all its pompes, as long as you please to inhabit the Desart, and if you once determine to stay there still, (though I have sent to Paris to hyre me a lodging) yet I resolve to breake off the bargaine, and meane to build me an Hermi∣tage, a hundred paces from your abode: from whence Madam, I shall easily be able to make two journeys a day to the place where you are, and shall yeeld you a subjection, and an assidui∣tie of service, as if I were in a manner of your household. There shall I let nothing fall from your mouth, which I shall not carefully gather up, and preserve it in my memory. There you shall doe me the favour, to resolve me when I shall have doubts; set me in the right way, when I goe astray; and when I cannot expresse my selfe in fit termes, you shall cleere my clouds, and give order to my confusednesse. It shall be your eares, upon which I will mea∣sure the cadences of my sentences; and upon the different motions of your eyes, I will take no∣tice

of the strength or weaknesse of my wri∣tings. In the heate of the travaile, and amidst the joyes of a mother, that lookes to be happily delivered, I will expose the Infant to the light of your judgement to be tryed, and not hold him for legitimate, till you approve him. Some∣times Madam, we will reade your Newes, and the Relations that are sent you from all parts of Christendome: Publike miseries shall passe be∣fore our eyes, without troubling our spirits; and the most serious actions of men, shall be our most ridiculous Comaedies. Out of your Clo∣set, we shall see below us the tumults and agita∣tion of the world, as from the top of the Alpes, we stand and safely see the raine and hayle of Savay. After this, Monsieur de Borstell shall come and reade us Lectures in the Politiques, and Comment upon Messer Nicholo unto us: He shall informe us of the affayres of Europe, with as great certaintie, as a good husband would doe of his Familie. He shall tell us the Causes, the Proceedings, and the Events of the warre in Germany; and therein shall give the lye, a thousand times, to our Gazets, our Mer∣curies, and such other fabulous Histories. Wee will agree with him, that the Prince he is so much in love withall, is most worthy of his pas∣sion; and that Sweden is no longer able to con∣taine so great a vertue: After the fashion of Plutarch, he shall compare together the prime Captaines of our age; alwayes excepting—who admits of no comparison. He shall tell us, which is the better man, the Italian, or the Ger∣mane;

what meanes may be used to take off the Duke of Saxony from the house of Austria; and what game the Duke of Bavaria playes, when he promiseth to enter into the League; and is alwayes harkening to that which he ne∣ver meanes to conclude. From these high and sublime Newes, we will descend to other mea∣ner, and more popular subjects. It shall be writ∣ten to you, whether the kingdome of Amucant be still in being, and whether there appeare not a rising Sunne, to which all eyes of the Court are turned: Monsier de—shall send you word, whether he persist in his pernicious de∣signe, to bring Polygamie into France, and to commit nine Incests at once; I meane, whether he have a good word from those nine Sisters, to all whom he hath solemnly made offer of his service. Wee shall know whether the Baron of—put Divines still to trouble: whether Monsieur da—have his heart still harde∣ned against the ungratefulnesse of the time, and whether Monsieur de—continue still in his wilfulnesse to punish mankinde by the sup∣pression of his Bookes. By the way of Lymo∣ges, wee shall get the devises of Boissiere; the Epigrammes of Mayn•…•…d, and other toyes of this nature. The Stationer des Espies Meurs will furnish you plentifully with Romances, and with that they call Belles Choses: and if it come to the worst from the very Cindera of Philar∣chus, there will spring up every moneth a new Phaenix of backbiting Eloquence, that will find 〈◊〉〈◊〉 recreation for one houre at least. And these

Madam, are a part of those imployments, in which I fancy in my minde, we may spend our time all the time of the heat; for when the re∣turne of Aprill shall bring againe the flowers and fayre dayes, and invite you abroad awalk∣ing: we must then looke us out some new plea∣sures, and change our recreations: wee will have swannes and other strange Birds, to cover this water at once both quicke and still, which washeth the feet of your Muses: wee will fall a planting of trees, & dressing the allies of your Garden: wee will digge for Springs, and dis∣cover treasures, which loose themselves under ground, which yet I value no lesse than veynes of silver, because I judge of them without cove∣tousnesse. And finally, Madam, we will fall a∣building that famous Bridge, by which to en∣ter your enchanted Palace, and wherof the one∣ly designe, puts all the neighbouring Nobilitie already into a jealousie. If you like of this course, and of these Propositions, and that my company may not be troublesome to you, there remaines nothing to doe, but that you command mee to come, and I am instantly ready to quit all other affayres in the world, and to come and testifie to you, that I am

Madam,

Your, &c.

At Balzac, 6. Novemb. 1629.