The sentences may be improved; much may be done even by better punctuation. The contrasts give some opportunity for balanced structure.-Compare Shakspeare's Tragedy of King Richard the Third. UTOPIAN CONTEMPT OF GOLD. (From Utopia, Book II.: Robinson's Translation, 2d edit., 1556.) The Ambassadors of the Anemolians came to Amaurote whiles I was there. And because they came to entreat of great and weighty matters, those three citizens apiece out of every city were come thither before them. But all the ambassadors of the next countries, which had been there before, and knew the fashions and manners of the Utopians, among whom they perceived no honour given to sumptuous apparell, silks to be contemned, gold also to be infamed and reproachful, were wont to come thither in very homely and simple array. But the Anemolians, because they dwell1 far thence, and had very little acquaintance3 with them; hearing that they were all apparelled alike, and that very rudely and homely; thinking them not to have the things which they did not wear; being therefore more proud than wise; determined in the gorgeousness of their apparel to represent very gods, and with the bright shining and glistering of their gay clothing to dazzle the eyes of the silly poor Utopians. So there came in three ambassadors with an hundred servants all apparelled in changeable colours; the most of them in silks; the ambassadors themselves (for at home in their own country they were noblemen) in cloth of gold, with great chains of gold, with gold hanging at their ears, with gold rings upon their fingers, with brooches and aglets of gold upon their caps, which glistered full of pearls and precious stones: to be short, trimmed and adorned with all those things which among 1 The Lat. orig. has aberant (dwelt). 2 Lat. orig. habuerant (had had). Lat. orig. minus commercii (less intercourse). the Utopians were either the punishment of bondmen, or the reproach of infamed persons, or else trifles for young children to play withal. Therefore it would have done a man good at his heart to have seen how proudly they displayed their peacocks' feathers, how much they made of their painted sheaths, and how loftily they set forth and advanced themselves, when they compared their gallant apparel with the poor raiment of the Utopians. For all the people were swarmed forth into the streets. And on the other side it was no less pleasure to consider how much they were deceived, and how far they missed of their purpose, being contrary ways taken than they thought they should have been. For to the eyes of all the Utopians, except very few, which had been in other countries for some reasonable cause, all that gorgeousness of apparel seemed shameful and reproachful. In so much that they most reverently saluted the vilest and most abject of them for lords; passing over the ambassadors themselves without any honour; judging them by their wearing of golden chains to be bondmen. Yea you should have seen children also, that had cast away their pearls and precious stones, when they saw the like sticking upon the ambassadors' caps, dig and push their mothers under the sides, saying thus to them: 'Look, mother, how great a lubber doth yet wear pearls and precious stones, as though he were a little child still.' But the mother, yea and that also in good earnest Peace, son,' saith she; 'I think he be some of the ambassadors' fools.' Some found fault at their golden chains, as to no use nor purpose, being so small and weak that a bondman might easily break them, and again so wide and large that, when it pleased him, he might cast them off, and run away at liberty whither he would. But when the ambassadors had been there a day or two, and saw so great abundance of gold so lightly esteemed, yea, in no less reproach than it was with them in honour; and besides that, more gold in the chains and gyves of one fugitive bondman than all the costly ornaments of them three was worth: they began to abate their courage, and for very shame laid away all that gorgeous array, whereof they were so proud. And specially when they talked familiarly with the Utopians, and had learned all their fashions and opinions. For they marvel that any men be so foolish as to have delight and pleasure in the doubtful glistering of a little trifling stone, which may behold any of the stars, or else the sun itself. Or that any man is so mad as to count himself the nobler for the smaller or finer thread of wool, which selfsame wool (be it now in never so fine a spun thread) a sheep did once wear: and yet was she all that time no other thing than a sheep. They marvel also that gold, which of the own nature is a thing so unprofitable, is now among all people in so high estimation that man himself, by whom, yea and for the use of whom it is so much set by, is in much less estimation than the gold itself. In so much that a lumpish blockheaded churl, and which hath no more wit than an ass,1 yea and as full of naughtiness as of folly, shall have nevertheless many wise and good men in subjection and bondage only for this, because he hath a great heap of gold. Which if it should be taken from him by any fortune, or by some subtle wile and cautel of the law (which no less than fortune doth both raise up the low and pluck down the high), and be given to the most vile slave and abject drivel of all his household, then shortly after he shall go into the service of his servant, as an augmentation or overplus beside his money. But they much more marvel at and detest the madness of them which to those rich men in whose debt and danger they 1 Lat. orig. quam stipiti (than a log, block, stick). be not do give almost divine honours, for none other consideration but because they be rich and yet knowing them to be such niggish penny fathers1 that they be sure as long as they live not the worth of one farthing of that heap of gold shall come to them. NOTES. Anemolians, Lat. Anemolii, Gr. Anemolioi, from aněmos (wind): men like the winds-empty, blustering, vainglorious, giving themselves airs. Carlyle might call them 'Windbags.' Amaurote, Lat. Amaurotus, from Gr. amauros (faintly seen, obscure): the unknown city. Of them (the Utopian cities) all, this is the worthiest and of most dignity.' 'This city is taken for the chief and head city.' Whiles, genitive of the noun 'while' (= time), used as an adverbial conjunction. While' is now the common form. 'Whilst,' which is in good use, takes on t to strengthen the sound, the tongue readily passing from s to : cf. amidst, against, amongst, &c.; tyrant, sound, &c. I was there. 'I' is Raphael Hythloday, whose story More professes simply to note down. He lived in Amaurote, he 'five whole years says, together,' and liked it better than any of the other cities in Utopia. Entreat, treat, handle, negotiate, discuss. From Lat. in-tractare, through Fr. traiter. Those three citizens apiece, &c. In an earlier chapter we are told that 'there come yearly to Amaurote out of every city three old men wise and well experienced, there to entreat and debate of the common matters of the land.' Come. Orig. has 'comen,' then of the p.part. not yet dropt. Utopians. Utopia' (from Gr. ou, not, and topos, a place) means Nowhere, a place that is merely imaginary. It would have been very dangerous for More to write a formal political essay to shew directly how the institutions of England ought to be changed in order to come up to his ideal of perfection. So he invented the story of this island Utopia, his 'perfect model of a commonwealth;' and what he attributed to its inhabitants as their actually existing institutions and ways of doing, were simply his own ideal arrangements. A recent writer has inverted the English word, calling his ideal country Erewhon. Compare Carlyle's Weissnichtwo (Know-notwhere-Kennaquhair). Infamed, spoken fill of, held in bad repute (Lat. fama). Milton (Par. Lost, ix. 797) uses 'infamed ' as 'not famed,' not celebrated, not known to fame. Silly, simple-minded, homely, unsophisticated half-way between the ancient salig (blessed, good), and the modern sense (weak-minded, half-witted). Aglets, or aiglets, points or tags, as at the end of fringes, &c. From Fr. aiguillette (tag), dimin. of aiguille (needle), from Lat. acicula (pin), from acus (needle). Which glistered. The antecedent to 'which' is 'brooches and aglets.' Either the punishment &c. Three alternatives are given by 'either... 1 Lat. orig. tam sordidos atque avaros. or... or.' The application of gold to vile or inferior uses had been earlier detailed, and the reader had been told that 'thus by all means possible they procure to have gold and silver among them in reproach and infamy.' Advanced themselves. Orig. has 'them selfes.' We find also both wifes' and 'wives.' Contrary wayes, now 'contrariwise.' 'Wayes' is genitive: cf. whiles' above; also 'always,' 'sometimes,' 'sideways,'' nowadays.' 'Con Than, after 'contrary ways,' seems Was (worth). May the singular verb Courage, pride; Lat. orig. has pennis (their plumes). Which may behold &c.: the antecedent is 'men,' a long way off. 'Which' may be resolved with advantage into conjunction and demon strative pronoun. Self-same the very same. Both words have the same meaningrepetition being a common and obvious way of giving emphasis. tive pronouns now seldom appear in the beginning of sentences: the translation here follows the Latin arrangement. There is also redundancy. Examine the exact use of 'which.' Cautel, from Lat. cautus, should mean caution, wariness, foresight; but in coming through Fr. it has degenerated into a synonym for 'wile,' fraud, deceit. Lat. orig. has but one word for both-stropha (a turning, crook; hence artifice, trick). Which. The anteced. is 'wile and cautel.' Drivel, or 'driveller,' foolish weak minded fellow literally, slaverer. Overplus, what remains over after a certain amount or quantity has been made up. From over, and Lat. plus (more, in addition). Danger comes in the long-run from Lat. dominiarium, from dominium, from dominus (lord). Hence 'to be in one's danger' is to be within one's lordship, power, to be at one's mercy. Cf. Shak., Merchant of Venice, iv. 1, 180: 'You stand within his danger, do you not?'also a case of debt, like the case in the text. The passage may be re-composed in modern form. The frequent tautologies will be avoided. 'Robinson seldom translates an epithet with a single word; he repeats two or even three words that are nearly synonymous. It would seem as if he distrusted the expressiveness of the new language, and sought to convey the Latin meaning by shewing it in as many aspects as our language permitted' (Minto). The number of tautologies in this extract is below the average. Examples: 'great and weighty' is for Lat. magnis; 'fashions and manners' for mores; 'infamed and reproachful' for infame; 'in very homely and simple |