HAT
diversitie soever there be in herbs, all are shuffled up together under
the name of a sallade. Even so upon the consideration of names I will
here
huddle up a gallymafry of diverse articles. Every several nation hath
some
names which, I wot not how, are sometimes taken in ill part: as with
us, Iacke,
Hodge, Tom, Will, Bat, Benet, and so forth. Item, it seemeth that
in
the genealogies of Princes there are certaine names fatally affected;
as Ptolomeus
with the Ægyptians, Henries in England, Charles
in France, Baldwins in Flanders, and Williams
in our ancient Aquitanie, whence some say came the name of Guienne;
which is but a cold invention: As if in Plato himselfe there
were
not some as harsh and ill-sounding. Item, it is an idle matter, yet
nevertheless,
by reason of the strangenesse, worthy the memorie, and recorded by an
ocular
witnesse, that Henric Duke of Normandie, sonne to Henrie
the second King of England, making a great feast in France,
the assembly of the Nobilitie was so great, that for pastimes sake,
being,
by the resemblance of their names, divided into severall companies: in
the first were found a hundred and ten Knights sitting at one table and
all called Williams; besides private gentlemen and servants. It
is as pleasant to distribute the tables by the names of the assistants
as it was unto Geta the Emperor, who would have all his messes
of
dishes served in at his table orderly according the first letters of
their
names: As, for example, those that began with P, as pig, pie, pike,
puddings,
pouts, proke, pancakes, &c. were all served in together; and so of
all the rest. Item, it is a common saying, 'That it is good to have a
good
name:' As much to say, good credit or good reputation. Yet verily it is
very commodious to have a well-sounding and smooth name, and which is
easie
to be pronounced, and facile to be remembered: For Kings, Princes,
Lords,
and Magistrates know and remember us the better by them, and will not
so
soone forget us. Marke but of those that serve and follow us, whether
we
doe not more ordinarily command and sooner employ such whose names come
readier to our tongue or memorie. I have seene our King Henrie
the
second, who could never hit on the right name of a Gentleman of Gascoigne,
and did ever call a Lady waiting on the Queene by the generall surname
of her house, because that of her father was so harsh and hard to be
remembered.
And Socrates saith: 'It ought to be a fathers speciall care to
give
his children good and easie-sounding names.' Item, it is reported that
the foundation of our Lady, the great at Poitiers had this
beginning:
'A licentious young man having his dwelling-house where the Church now
standeth, had one night gotten a wench to lie with him, who so soone as
she came to bed, he demanded her name, who answered Marie: The
young
man hearing that name, was suddenly so strucken with a motive of
religion,
and an awefull respect unto that sacred name of the virgin Marie,
the blessed mother of our Saviour and Redeemer, that he did not onely
presently
put her away from him, but reformed all the remainder of his succeeding
life: And that in consideration of this miracle there was first erected
a chappell in the place where this young mans house stood, consecrated
unto that holy name, and afterward the faire great Church which yet
continueth.'
This vocal and auricular correction, and so full of devotion, strucke
right
unto his soule. This other following, of the same kind, insinuated it
selfe
by the corporall senses. Pythagoras being in companie with two
young
men, whom he heard complot and consult ( being somewhat heated with
feasting
and drinking) to go and ravish a chast-house, commanded immediately the
minstrels to change their tune; and so by a solemne, grave, severe, and
spondaicall kinde of musicke, did sweetly inchaunt, allay, and
in-trance
their rash, violent, and law-lesse lust. Item, shall not succeeding
posteritie
say that our moderne reformation hath been exact and delicate, to have
not only oppugned and resisted errors and vices, and filled the world
with
devotion, humilitie, obedience, peace, and every other kinde of vertue,
but even to have combated their ancient names of baptisme, Charles,
Lewis, Francis, to people the world with Methusalem, Ezechiel,
Malachie,
much better feeling of a lively faith? A Gentleman my neighbour
esteeming
the commodities of ancient times in regard of our daies, forgot not to
sledge the fiercenesse and magnificence of the names of the Nobilitie
of
those times, as Don Grumedan, Quedragan, and Agesilan:
And
that, but to hear them sounded, a man might easily perceive they had
been
other manner of men than Peter, Guilliam, or Michell.
Item,
I commend and am much beholding to Iames Amiot, in the course
of
a French oration of his, to have still kept the full ancient Latine
names,
without disguising or changing them, to give them a new French cadence.
At the first they seemed somewhat harsh unto the reader: but now, by
reason
of the credit which his Plutarke hath deservedly gotten amongst
us, custome has removed all strangenesse from us. I have often wished
that
those who write histories in Latine, would leave us our names whole,
and
such as they are: For, altering VaudemontVallemontanus,
and metamorphosing them by muting them to the Grecian or Latin tongue,
we know not what to make of them, and are often at a non-plus. To
conclude
my discourse: It is an ill custome, and of exceeding bad consequence in
our countrie of France, to call every man by the name of his
Towne,
Mannor, Hamlet, or Lordship, as the thing that doth most confound
houses,
and bring surnames out of knowledge. A cadet or yonger-brother of a
good
house, having had for his appanage a Lordship, by whose name he hath
been
knowne and honoured, cannot well forsake and leave the same ten yeares
after his death: his Lordship commeth unto a stranger, who doth the
like:
Ghesse then where we are, and how we shall doe to come to the perfect
knowledge
of these men. We need not goe far for other examples, but looke into
our
Royall house, where so many partages, so many surnames, and so many
severall
titles have so encumbred us, that the originall of the stocke is
utterly
lost. There is so much libertie in these mutations, that even in my
time
I have seene no man nor woman advanced by fortune into some
extraordinarie
preferment, that hath not immediately had adjoined unto him or her
genealogicall
titles, new and unknowne to their fathers, and that hath not been
engraffed
into some noble stocke or family. And as good lucke serveth, the basest
upstart and most obscure houses are most apt unto adulteration and
falsification.
How many privat Gentlemen have we in FrancePeter or William
that
beareth the same (marke it well, reader) and to whom it belongeth. Is
not
hope a courageous facultie, which in a mortall subject, and in a
moment,
seeks to usurp infinitie and immensitie, and to replenish his Masters
indigence
with the po esession of all things he can imagine or desire before it
would?
Nature hath given us a pleasant joy to play withall in that. Is it Peter
or William. And what is that but a word for al mouths? or three
or foure dashes of a pen, first, so easie to be varied, as I would
willingly
ask those whom the honor of so many victories concerneth, or whether Guesquin,
or Glesquin, or Gueaquin? yet were there more apparence
her
than in Lucian that Σ did sue T. For, to
which, according to
their accompt and blazoning of their gentrie, are of the royall house
or
race? I beleeve more than others. Was it not prettily said, and with a
good grace, by one of my friends? There was a great companie banded
together
about a quarrell which a Gentleman had with another, who in very truth
had some prerogative of titles, honours, and alliances above the common
sort of Nobilitie; upon which word of his prerogative, every one
seeking
to equall himselfe unto him, alleaged, some one ofspring, some another,
some the resemblance of his name, some of his armes, othersome an old
farfetcht
pedigree, and the meanest of them to be the great grandchild of some
King
beyond the seas. When they came all to dinner, this man, whom hitherto
they had all followed, in liew of takin g his wonted place, making low
lowting reverences, went to the lowest end of the board, entreating the
companie to hold him excused, that through rash-unadvisednesse he had
hitherto
lived with them companion-like, but now being lately enformed of their
right qualities, he began to know them according to their ancient
degrees,
and that it did not duly belong unto him to sit above so many Princes.
And after he had acted his play, he began to raile upon them with a
thousand
injuries; saying thus unto them: For the love of God, content your
selves
with what your forefathers have been contented, and with the state
whereto
God hath called us; we have sufficient if we can maintaine it well, let
us not disparage the fortune and condition of our predecessors, and
reject
we these fond imagitiations, which cannot faile any man, whatsoever he
be, that is so imprudent as to alleage them. Crests, Armes, and Coats
have
no more certaintie than surnames. I beare Azure seme of trefoiles, a
Lions
Paw in fæce. Or armed Gules. What privilege hath this Coat, that
it should for ever continue particularly to my house? A sonne in law
will
transferre the same into another family: Some silly upstart purchaser
of
Armes will make it his chiefe Coat. 'There is nothing wherein meet so
many
alterations and so much confusion. But this consideration draweth me
perforce
unto another field. Let us somewhat narrowly search into, and for God's
sake consider, on what foundation we ground this glorie and reputation,
for which the world is turned topsie-turvie. On what do we establish
this
transitorie renowne, which with so great mind-possessing toyle and
industrie
we seek and gape-after? In fine, it is
----- non levia aut ludicra petuntur Præmia:
-- Vir. Æn. xii. 764.
No light prize, no
reward in jest
Is hunted after as the best.
The wager goeth
deepe: The question is, which letter must be paid
with so many sieges, battels, hurts, emprisonments, and services done
unto
the Crowne of France by her ever renowned Constable.
Nicholas
Denisot hath had no care but of the letters of his name, and hath
changed
all the contexture of them, thereout to frame the Earl of Alsinoss,
whom he hath honoured and presenteth with the glorie of his Poesie and
Painting. And Suetonius the historian hath loved but the sense
of
his owne, and having taken away Lenis, which was his fathers
surname,
hath left Tranquillus successor of his compositions reputation.
Who would beleeve Captain Bayard hath no honour but that which
he
hath borrowed from the acts of Peter Terraill? And that Antonio
Escalin (even before his eies) suffered Captaine Poulin,
and
the Baron of La Garde, to steal so many Navigations, voyages,
and
attempts, both by sea and land, from him? Secondarily, they are dashes
and trickes of the pen, common unto a thousand men. many are there in
all
races or families both of one name and surname! And how many in divers
families, races, ages, and countries? Historie hath knowne three Socrates,
five Platoes, eight Aristotles, seven Xenophons,
twenty Demetrius,
twenty Theodores: besides which, imagine how many came not to
her
knowledge. Who letteth my horse boy to call himselfe Pompey the
great? But after all, what meanes, what devices are there that annex
unto
my horse-keeper deceased, or to that other who had his head cut off in Ægypt,
or that joyne unto them this glorified and farrenowned word and these
pen-dashes
so much honoured, that they may thereby advantage themselves?
Id cinerem
et manes credis curare sepultos? -- IV 34.
Thinke you, ghosts
buried, ashes dead,
Care much how we alive are sped?
What feeling motion
of revenge have the two companions in chiefe
valor amongst men: Epaminondas of that glorious verse, which so
many ages since is so common in our mouthes for him?
Consiliis
nostris laus est attrita Laconum. --Cic. Tusc.
Qu. v.
By our complots the
haught renowne,
Of Spartan Gallants was brought downe.
And Africanus of
that other;
A sole
exoriente supra Mæotis paludes
Nemo est, qui factis me æquiparare queat?
--Ibid.
From Sun rise to the
Scythian-lake, of fame
None in exploits can equalize my name.
Those that survive
are tickled with the pleasure of these words,
and by them solicited with jealousie and desire, doe presently without
consideration transmit by fantasie this their proper motion of revenge
unto the deceased; and with a fond-deceiving hope perswade, themselves,
when their turne commeth, to be capable of it. God he knowes it,
neverthelesse:
----- ad hæc se
Romanus Graiusque et Barbarus Induperator
Erexit, causas dicriminis atque laboris
Inde habuit, tanto major famæ sitis est, quam
Virtutis.
-- Juv. Sat. x. 137.
Heerto himselfe the
Romane Generall,
The Grecian, the Barbarian, rouz'd and rais'd;
Heere hence drew cause of perils, travells all:
So more, than to be good, thirst to be prais'd.
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