登陆注册
19613800000003

第3章 CHAPTER I(3)

"Poach! not he," said brother Michael: "if he wants your partridges, he will strike them under your nose (here's to you), and drag your trout-stream for you on a Thursday evening."

"Monstrous! and starve us on fast-day," said the little friar.

"But that is not the game I mean," said brother Michael.

"Surely, son Michael," said the abbot, "you do not mean to insinuate that the noble earl will turn freebooter?"

"A man must live," said brother Michael, "earl or no. If the law takes his rents and beeves without his consent, he must take beeves and rents where he can get them without the consent of the law.

This is the lex talionis."

"Truly," said Sir Ralph, "I am sorry for the damsel: she seems fond of this wild runagate."

"A mad girl, a mad girl," said the little friar.

"How a mad girl?" said brother Michael. "Has she not beauty, grace, wit, sense, discretion, dexterity, learning, and valour?"

"Learning!" exclaimed the little friar; "what has a woman to do with learning? And valour! who ever heard a woman commended for valour?

Meekness and mildness, and softness, and gentleness, and tenderness, and humility, and obedience to her husband, and faith in her confessor, and domesticity, or, as learned doctors call it, the faculty of stayathomeitiveness, and embroidery, and music, and pickling, and preserving, and the whole complex and multiplex detail of the noble science of dinner, as well in preparation for the table, as in arrangement over it, and in distribution around it to knights, and squires, and ghostly friars,--these are female virtues: but valour--why who ever heard----?"

"She is the all in all," said brother Michael, "gentle as a ring-dove, yet high-soaring as a falcon: humble below her deserving, yet deserving beyond the estimate of panegyric: an exact economist in all superfluity, yet a most bountiful dispenser in all liberality: the chief regulator of her household, the fairest pillar of her hall, and the sweetest blossom of her bower: having, in all opposite proposings, sense to understand, judgment to weigh, discretion to choose, firmness to undertake, diligence to conduct, perseverance to accomplish, and resolution to maintain.

For obedience to her husband, that is not to be tried till she has one: for faith in her confessor, she has as much as the law prescribes: for embroidery an Arachne: for music a Siren: and for pickling and preserving, did not one of her jars of sugared apricots give you your last surfeit at Arlingford Castle?"

"Call you that preserving?" said the little friar; "I call it destroying.

Call you it pickling? Truly it pickled me. My life was saved by miracle."

"By canary," said brother Michael. "Canary is the only life preserver, the true aurum potabile, the universal panacea for all diseases, thirst, and short life. Your life was saved by canary."

"Indeed, reverend father," said Sir Ralph, "if the young lady be half what you describe, she must be a paragon: but your commending her for valour does somewhat amaze me."

"She can fence," said the little friar, "and draw the long bow, and play at singlestick and quarter-staff."

"Yet mark you," said brother Michael, "not like a virago or a hoyden, or one that would crack a serving-man's head for spilling gravy on her ruff, but with such womanly grace and temperate self-command as if those manly exercises belonged to her only, and were become for her sake feminine."

"You incite me," said Sir Ralph, "to view her more nearly.

That madcap earl found me other employment than to remark her in the chapel."

"The earl is a worthy peer," said brother Michael; "he is worth any fourteen earls on this side Trent, and any seven on the other."

(The reader will please to remember that Rubygill Abbey was north of Trent.)

"His mettle will be tried," said Sir Ralph. "There is many a courtier will swear to King Henry to bring him in dead or alive."

"They must look to the brambles then," said brother Michael.

"The bramble, the bramble, the bonny forest bramble, Doth make a jest Of silken vest, That will through greenwood scramble:

The bramble, the bramble, the bonny forest bramble."

"Plague on your lungs, son Michael," said the abbot; "this is your old coil: always roaring in your cups."

"I know what I say," said brother Michael; "there is often more sense in an old song than in a new homily.

The courtly pad doth amble, When his gay lord would ramble:

But both may catch An awkward scratch, If they ride among the bramble:

The bramble, the bramble, the bonny forest bramble."

"Tall friar," said Sir Ralph, "either you shoot the shafts of your merriment at random, or you know more of the earl's designs than beseems your frock."

"Let my frock," said brother Michael, "answer for its own sins.

It is worn past covering mine. It is too weak for a shield, too transparent for a screen, too thin for a shelter, too light for gravity, and too threadbare for a jest.

The wearer would be naught indeed who should misbeseem such a wedding garment.

But wherefore does the sheep wear wool?

That he in season sheared may be, And the shepherd be warm though his flock be cool:

So I'll have a new cloak about me."

同类推荐
  • 列仙传

    列仙传

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 先天斗母奏告玄科

    先天斗母奏告玄科

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 河南程氏遗书

    河南程氏遗书

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • A Monk of Fife

    A Monk of Fife

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 高上玉宸忧乐章

    高上玉宸忧乐章

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 十一分爱

    十一分爱

    喻之之站在女性的立场,细细阅读着女性的心灵,她在努力表达那些微妙与复杂。从她叙述故事的情节到细节,都会看到一种关爱一种体贴。于是,心灵的门打开了,人物也就鲜活起来了。小说集里的这些作品题材不同,叙述风格结构方式也各有特点,然而也共同之处,那就是一种由衷的关爱与体贴。
  • 绿波

    绿波

    一个护林人的艰辛,让林业站的人给耍了一通后,自己还没有觉得,反映了底层百姓的纯真,那种事业的操守。引来一段荒诞的故事。
  • 重生之青梅的逆袭

    重生之青梅的逆袭

    叶家玉和杨树门当户对,青梅竹马。叶家玉喜欢杨树,杨树要结婚了,新娘却不是她。叶家玉生在富贵人家,她用最好的东西,玩最新鲜的事物。但直到最终阖眼的那一刻,她才明白,自己却也不过是别人爱情故事里的配角。时光回到一切将要开始的夏天,她该怎么选择?
  • 重生千金:依依向希

    重生千金:依依向希

    苏子依浑浑噩噩过完了第一世,善良纯真却众叛亲离,重来一世,擦亮双眼,又喜得空间,再也不要做圣母,该是我的谁都别想拿走。殷砚希用了七年时间,一步一步让苏子依依赖他,离不开他,算得妻心。只因为他相信这个世界上再也不会有人比他更爱苏子依,所以哪怕不择手段,机关算尽,他也要把苏子依护在自己身边,用尽一生去爱她
  • 荡天记

    荡天记

    本书讲述的是一个卑微的生灵的慢慢修道之路。大道三道,每天都有耀眼的天才在修行之路上殒落,且看传奇修士小于阳,是一步步怎样在血与火中慢慢成长,最终问鼎九天十地之上的……
  • 别惹女生

    别惹女生

    本书是快乐少年第四辑之整蛊校园之一,是一部全面反映小学生校园生活的小说,生动有趣描述了小学生的成长经历,肖小笑,“铁三角”中的老大,班长,学习好,头脑灵活,是谋划把老师搞掂的主谋,还有“铁三角”中的唯一女生田田和军师范弥胡,当严肃可爱的老教师石老师碰上这群捣蛋鬼时,她该如何接招?本书生动,幽默,情节简单,适合广大青少年读者。
  • 含有多种维生素的思考

    含有多种维生素的思考

    本书为陈祖芬的中国故事系列丛书,共十六本,在这十六本书里,有作者的生命脉络,这是读者朋友们能触摸得到的。本书收录了“女孩”、“世界是由不安分的人创造的”、“让我糊涂一回”、“生活向你提供信息”等20余篇文章。
  • 声优至上

    声优至上

    龙神?天狼?吸血鬼?!鬼魂?狐仙?超能力者?!因为意外想起另一个世界记忆的方诚,面对着这个与自己所知世界有着‘些许’不同的世界,摊手表示:“哪怕你们这群人外打上天去,我也要成为世界第一(声优)呀!”“诚,在此之前,能把新歌送给我吗?”“大哥,我买了你最喜欢吃的哈根达斯。”“弟弟君,就算化身恶魔,我也要把你俘获!”“mako大神!要……死一次吗?”“噗噗噗,诚酱大失败!”“一开始笑我是拒绝的,你不能让我笑我立刻就笑,首先我要试一……”“你们都给我闭嘴啊!!!!!!!”……其实,这就是一本记录方诚在超能力世界想要成为声优却在百变明星的道路上越走越远,以及在干妹妹和干姐姐之间做出选择的奇葩故事。
  • 一宠惊世

    一宠惊世

    身为天下最神秘势力洛神谷继承人的苏沉,千不该万不该爱上他,直到自己国家灭亡,她才知,她与他,咫尺天涯。原本心灰意冷隐居西凉镇,却被人用一张皇榜引蛇出洞,不甘母亲被辱,一朝入宫,调查真相,却无奈与他相遇。背叛,欺骗,陷害,与真相的残忍,她该怎样面对。既然如此,慕云澜,带着你的三千佳丽接招吧……
  • 网游之剑道独尊

    网游之剑道独尊

    从山里走出的少年,带着师父的叮嘱,走向了《苍穹》的世界,从而在艾尔泽斯这块大陆上,少年和他的剑,将演绎剑惊全球!【剑魂】+9;剑者的精魄得到了升华,让你具有超神般的力量。等级:9职业:剑尊;伤害吸收:43%;伤害加深:43%;生命强化:增加450点生命值;邪恶攻击:对其他玩家进行攻击时,额外增加21%的伤害加成;灵魂震慑:4.0%几率使敌人眩晕4轮(1轮为3秒),每轮敌人只有25%的几率挣脱;灵魂一击:10%几率对目标造成当前生命值的10%灵魂伤害;聚魔:增加200点魔力值;强壮:增加200点生命力。