work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
7476,"",C-H Lion,2013-06-18 18:04:09 UTC,"He's a thing wholly consisting of Extreams--A Head, Fingers and Toes; for what his industrious Toes do tread, his ready Fingers do write, his running Head dictating. But to describe him more exactly, He is is made up of a large Head and Ears, some Beams, and most immoderate Tongue, Toes and Fingers; a very Carrier or Foot-post will draw him from any Company that has not been abroad, (excepting always his dear Iris, for she is ever new) meerly because he's a sort of a Traveller: But a Dutch Post ravishes him, and the meer Superscription of a Letter (thô there's ne're a Bill in't) from Boston, Italy, or France, sets him up like a Top, Colen or Germany makes him spin--(and without Whipping too, there's the wonder) and at seeing the word Universe, America, Flanders, or the Holy Land, thô but on the Title of a Book, he's ready to break Doublet, let fall Breeches, (in a civil way ) and overflow the room with all those Wonderments have surpriz'd him in these flourishing Countreys. If he has no Latin or Greek, he makes it up with abundant scraps of Italian, Spanish, French and Dutch, and thô he has little more knowledge in any of 'em than Comestato? Parlez vous? or How vare ye Min-heer? and can hardly buy a Sallat in one Language, or a Herring in t'other; yet when he comes home, he passes with himself and others like him, for a monstrous learned Creature, a Native of every Countrey under Heaven, whereas indeed he's a meer Babylonian, he confounds all Languages, but speaks none, and is so careful to jumble together the Gibberish of other Countreys, that he almost forgets his own Mother Tongue, as the Roman Orator did his Name, only the Writing the History of his Travels makes him remember it agen. All his Discourse is shap'd into a Traveling Garb, and is the same with his Manners and Haviour, looking as if 'twas contriv'd to make Mourners merry. He's all the strange shapes round the Maps put together--one Legg a Hungarian, t'other a Pole; one piece of him a Turk, and the next a Tartar or Moscovite; but if you look on his Face, you'd swear he's a Laplander--so much has Travelling, Wind, Sun and Rain discoulour'd it and alter'd it: However chast his Body may be, his Mind is extreamly prolifick; his thoughts are a perfect Seraglio, and he, like a great Turk, begets thousands of little Infants--Remarks, Fancys, Fantasticks, Crochets and Whirligigs, on his wandring Intellect, and when once begot, they must be bred--so out he turns 'em into the wide World to shift for themselves, after he has put a few black and white Raggs about 'em to cover their Nakedness: But to look upon 'em when they once get abroad--to see how hugely they favour their Father: Do but view 'em all over, and--Here's that will cure your Corns, Gout, Chollick, and what you please; or as the most excellent Saffold--'Twill cure every cureable Disease: (You have heard of the Monkey that cured the Cardinal:) Undo the Colledge, and break Apothecarys Hall, as easily as one of their Glasses. There's no Man who for his sake wou'd n't neglect any thing but Business, that is to say, wou'd not be glad of his Company, when he has nothing else to do:--He'll ask you how you do; where you have been; what News; how is't; if you have Travelled; and above all, (when Publish'd) How you like his Rambles; han't they a fine Frontispiece--Ay, a very fine one; there's Art--there's Thought--well--and then for the Uerses before it, I say Coriat's Book was but a Horn-book to't--they no more deserve to be compared together than Pilgrims Progress and Burton's Wonderments; and so he would Ramble on to the End of the Chapter, did not you out of Civility give him a gentle tweak by the Nose, or kick on the Shins, and ask him whether he knew what he was talking of? Yet as good let him alone, for if you get him out of this Impertinency, he'll ramble into a thousand more, rather than want the Humanity of vexing you--but then such courteous ones they'll be (for he's the very Pink of Courtesie) that ye can't for your Teeth find in your Heart to be angry with him. If he chances to be Shipwrackt, he can't be angry with the Sea or Winds; Nay, is rather pleas'd with 'em, for giving him opportunity to describe a Storm more lively, and tell the World what direful Dangers he escaped, when he swum ashore like a Cæsar, with his Sword in one hand, and his Commentaries in t'other. He's averse to nothing that has Motion in't, and for a Lowse, he dearly loves such a painful Fellow-Traveller, who Rambles over his Microcosm, or lesser World, as he the greater--nibling and sucking here and there, whenever he finds any thing agreeable to his Palate. He's generally for Foot-service, and thinks that much more brave than the Horse, scorning to ride upon four Hoofs, when Nature has given him ten Toes to support him. But if he should be forc'd into such Circumstances, by the surbating his Feet, he envies those happier Criminals who have their Leggs ty'd under their Horses belly, and thinks the most commodious way of riding is with his Face toward the Tayl, for then he can't see any danger 'till he's past it. Other People are for walking with a Horse in their Hand, he's o' the contrary, for riding with his Staff in his Hand, or rather Walking with a Horse between his Leggs, for his Feet still move at the same rate as if they touch'd the ground, and were imployed in their own natural motion.
(pp. 9-14)",,20947,"","""However chast his Body may be, his Mind is extreamly prolifick; his thoughts are a perfect Seraglio, and he, like a great Turk, begets thousands of little Infants--Remarks, Fancys, Fantasticks, Crochets and Whirligigs, on his wandring Intellect, and when once begot, they must be bred--so out he turns 'em into the wide World to shift for themselves, after he has put a few black and white Raggs about 'em to cover their Nakedness.""",Inhabitants,2013-06-18 18:10:01 UTC,The Impartial Character of a Rambler.
7476,"",C-H Lion,2013-06-18 20:50:02 UTC," Ca'ndish and Drake, rub off! avaunt! be gone!
A greater Traveller now's approaching on:
You for one way at once did well 'tis true,
But his Inventions far more strange and new,
At once he forward goes and backwards too!
Whilst his dull Body's for New-England bound,
His Soul (in Dreams) trots all the World around;
But Cunning Men and Conjurers use this Trade,
Who still as Stocks have Sea and Land survey'd;
Nor think he writes more than he saw, thô he
Use Authors to refresh his Memorie;
And Trav'llers have you know Authoritie.
If Fame and thee as who dares doubt, speak true,
No mortal Wight cou'd ever him outdo;
No wandring Christian; No, nor wandring Jew,
Vesputius, Madoc, Cortes, Captain Smith,
Lithgow, or whom Achates travel'd with,
Whoever round the Earths vast Circle ran,
Coryat or Cabot, Hanno or Magellan;
By Horse or Foot, or Ship, how e're they've gone,
Whether Dutch Vander, or Castilian Don,
None sure, none over-went thee yet, Friend John!
And see how on the Black'nd shore attends
Thy looseing Bark a shole of weeping Friends:
Weeping, or what's far worse, the sad surprize,
And Grief for thy Departure froze their Eyes.
He that can cry or roar finds some relief,
But nothing kills like the dry silent grief.
",,20948,"","""Whilst his dull Body's for New-England bound, / His Soul (in Dreams) trots all the World around.""","",2013-06-18 20:50:02 UTC,""
7476,"",C-H Lion,2013-06-18 20:53:27 UTC,"Be it therefore known to all men by these presents, that I Don John Hard-name (you'll hear more on't if you have patience to read further) Citizen and, &c. of London, being now arriv'd to the precise 30th. Year of my Life, that time when the gaities of Fancy being workt off, the Judgment begins to Burnish, and a Man comes to years of Discretion, if ever he will be so:--Wandring one Evening thro' a Cypress Grove--(I won't be positive, it might be Hazle, but t'other sounds better) revolving in my rambling Brain the Varietyes of Human Affairs, happen'd i' the Drove of Thoughts, that swarm'd up and down my Noddle to reflect on my own self (Sir, Your Humble Servant) and what strange checquered Fortunes had filled the Lines of my Horoscope; I followed my self in my busy Imagination from my Cradle to my Grave, in all my Rises and Falls, my Ups and Downs, and heres and theres and every where's, and upon the whole sincerely protest unto thee, O judicious, gentle, courteous Reader, that after the severest Investigation both of History and Experience, I can no where find my Parallel, and am apt now to believe what I thought too much my Friends have sometimes bin pleas'd to Complement me with, that I was indeed an Original.
(I, 1-2)",,20949,"","""Wandring one Evening thro' a Cypress Grove--(I won't be positive, it might be Hazle, but t'other sounds better) revolving in my rambling Brain the Varietyes of Human Affairs, happen'd i' the Drove of Thoughts, that swarm'd up and down my Noddle to reflect on my own self (Sir, Your Humble Servant) and what strange checquered Fortunes had filled the Lines of my Horoscope.""",Animals,2013-06-18 20:53:27 UTC,""
7476,"",C-H Lion,2013-06-18 21:04:29 UTC,"After his first Ramble--] First, and not first--for even before this, I Rambled from the Beginning of the World, if not a great deal sooner. The Essences of things are eternal, as the Learned say, and my first Ramble was indeed out of Essence into Existence, from a Being in my Causes, into actual Being.
But not to mount the Argument above my Readers Head, lest I should crack both that and my own--Let it suffice, that my Soul for ought I know, has been Rambling the best part of this 6000 Years, if those are in the right on't who hold the Præexistence, and that all Souls were made at once.
However--for my Body, I can make Affidavit on't--that 't has been Rambling so long and so far before my Soul stumbled upon't, that I lose the Track, and can go no further. All matter is in motion, and therefore perpetually chang'd and alter'd--now in how many shapes that little handful which makes up my Souls Luggage, has been formerly dress'd, I'll promise you, I'll not undertake to tell ye.
(p. 27)",,20956,"","""Let it suffice, that my Soul for ought I know, has been Rambling the best part of this 6000 Years, if those are in the right on't who hold the Præexistence, and that all Souls were made at once.","",2013-06-18 21:04:29 UTC,""
7476,"",C-H Lion,2013-06-18 21:11:11 UTC,"But think ye this is all--no--Death has n't yet done wi' me, and I was just turning over by an odder whim than either of these:--For as I was expatiating in Dungrove Fields, my Mind and Body rambling alike, neither cared or knew whether, I out of a Childish wantonness gathered a bearded Ear of Grass or Corn, and put it into my Throat, thrusting it down so far, that when I went to pull it up again, being against the grain, there it stuck and might have done till 't had grown agen, for I cou'd n't wag it, any more than a poor Gudgeon get out the Beard of a Hook after he has swallowed the fallacious Bait and that together with it.
(I.v, p. 64)",,20962,"","""For as I was expatiating in Dungrove Fields, my Mind and Body rambling alike, neither cared or knew whether, I out of a Childish wantonness gathered a bearded Ear of Grass or Corn, and put it into my Throat, thrusting it down so far, that when I went to pull it up again, being against the grain, there it stuck and might have done till 't had grown agen, for I cou'd n't wag it, any more than a poor Gudgeon get out the Beard of a Hook after he has swallowed the fallacious Bait and that together with it.""","",2013-06-18 21:11:11 UTC,""
7476,"",C-H Lion,2013-06-18 21:34:23 UTC,"How,--Evander not understand true English, who has been an Author these three and twenty years, and cou'd almost read his Criss cross-row in his Mother's Belly! Who has so many English Dictionaries in his Study, and another in his Head bigger than all together (and yet there's still room to spare both for Brains and Projects) Does not he?--nay--now you ruffle his smooth Soul, alter his fair Body, and discompose him all over.--If ye go on at this rate, with making Objections, a Man does not know how to answer (for their number, I mean not their weight) ye shall e'ne write your self, and let the World laugh at ye, for Evander will be your Fool no longer.--But not to overrule this Plea, we'll for once joyn issue, and giv't a fair Answer.
(II, p. 17)",,20971,"","""Who has so many English Dictionaries in his Study, and another in his Head bigger than all together (and yet there's still room to spare both for Brains and Projects) Does not he?--nay--now you ruffle his smooth Soul, alter his fair Body, and discompose him all over.""",Writing,2013-06-18 21:34:23 UTC,""
7476,"",C-H Lion,2013-06-19 01:40:58 UTC,"Towards the end of which Chapter Evander confesses his Wit has a little run away with him; so ungovernable a thing is towring Fancy, when not hand-cufft by powerful Reason, flying out against Learning, beloved Learning, at so Satyrical a rate as almost makes his heart bleed to read it, when he thinks he has been so unkind to that which has been so kind to him.--But after he has thus broken its Head, he gives so clever and kind a Plaister, that any one wou'd be glad to be so wittily abused, to have so good amends made him.--See pag. 107.
(II, pp. 12-13)",,20988,"","""Towards the end of which Chapter Evander confesses his Wit has a little run away with him; so ungovernable a thing is towring Fancy, when not hand-cufft by powerful Reason, flying out against Learning, beloved Learning, at so Satyrical a rate as almost makes his heart bleed to read it, when he thinks he has been so unkind to that which has been so kind to him.""",Fetters,2013-06-19 01:40:58 UTC,""
7476,"",C-H Lion,2013-06-19 02:14:02 UTC,"But alas, I had not been sixty minutes Alphabetizing and sorting of Books before my old Rambling Maggot began to crawl and bite afresh; upon which I immediately grew as fickle and wavering as if I had drank Liquor distill'd from a Womans Brains; and nothing would satisfie me now till I saw the Situation of my Father's House again. 'Tis true, my Master did advise me (for which I'll pay and ever owe him as many Thanks as Arithmetick can count) to beg my Father's Consent before I rambled again; but my runnagate Mind being set on a galloping Frollick, he might with as much ease have found out the Quadrature of a Circle, or the Taylor's Name that works to the Man in the Moon, as have parted me from another Ramble; for beginning now to imagin that a Trade was troublesom, and that the toyl of keeping Accompts would be a labour too tedious for my Mercurial Brains, I was impatient till I was on another Ramble. And no sooner had the Night began to draw its Curtains, but Evander draws his.
(III, pp. 34-5)",,20997,"OED: runagate is a deserter, fugitive, runaway, also apostate...","""'Tis true, my Master did advise me (for which I'll pay and ever owe him as many Thanks as Arithmetick can count) to beg my Father's Consent before I rambled again; but my runnagate Mind being set on a galloping Frollick, he might with as much ease have found out the Quadrature of a Circle, or the Taylor's Name that works to the Man in the Moon, as have parted me from another Ramble.""",Inhabitants,2013-06-19 02:14:02 UTC,""
7476,"",C-H Lion,2013-06-19 02:37:39 UTC,"But should both Indies spread their Laps to me!
And court my Eyes to wish their Treasury,
My better Will they neither could intice,
Nor this with Gold, nor that with all her Spice:
For what poor things had these Possessions shown,
When all were mine, but I were not mine own?
Others in pompous Wealth their thoughts may please,
And I am rich in wishing none of these:
For Youth, which happiness wou'd you beg first,
Still to have Drink, or never to have Thirst?
No Servants on my beck attendant stand,
Yet are my Passions all at my command;
Reason within me shall sole Ruler be,
And every Sense shall wear her Livery:
Lord of my self in Chief; when they that have
More Wealth, make that their Lord which is my Slave;
Yet I as well as they with more content,
Have in my self a Houshold-Government;
My Intellectual Soul hath there possest
The Steward's Place, to govern all the rest.
When I go forth, my Eyes two Ushers are,
And dutifully walk before me bare:
My Legs run Footman by me, go or stand;
My ready Arms wait close on either hand:
My Lips are Porters to the dangerous dore,
And either Ear a trusty Auditor:
And when abroad I go, Fancy shall be
My skilful Coachman, and shall hurry me
Through Heaven and Earth, and Neptune's watery Plain,
And in a moment drive me back again:
The Charge of all my Cellar, Thirst, is thine;
Thou Butler art, and Yeoman of my Wine:
Stomach the Cook, whose Dishes best delight,
Because their only Sauce is Appetite:
My other Cook Disgestion; where to me
Teeth Carve, and Pallate will the Taster be;
And the two Eye-lids when I go to sleep,
Like careful Grooms my silent Chamber keep;
Where lest a Cold oppress my vital part,
A gentle fire is kindled by the Heart;
And lest too great a heat procure my pain,
The Lungs fan Wind to cool those parts again.
Within the inner Closet of my Brain
Attend the nobler Members of my Train;
Invention, Master of my Mint, grows there,
And Memory, my faithful Treasurer.
And tho' in others 'tis a treacherous part,
My Tongue is SECRETARY to my Heart:
And then the PAGES of my Soul and Sence,
Love, Anger, Pleasure, Grief, Concupiscence,
And all Affections else are taught t'obey
Like Subjects, not like Favourites, to sway:
This is my MANNOR-HOUSE; Then Lad you see,
I live Great-Master of a Family.
My Wishes are but few, all easie to fulfill,
I make the Limit of my Power the Bounds unto my Will.
But should I leave or mind my Crook no more,
I might perchance get RICHES and be POOR.
Oh Humane Blindness! had you Eyes to see,
There is no Wealth to scorned Poverty!
(III, pp. 42-4)",,21002,"","""And when abroad I go, Fancy shall be / My skilful Coachman, and shall hurry me / Through Heaven and Earth, and Neptune's watery Plain, / And in a moment drive me back again.""",Inhabitants,2013-06-19 02:37:39 UTC,""
8024,"",Reading,2014-09-02 15:27:23 UTC,"Faith.
Then it came burning hot into my mind, whatever he said, and however he flattered, when he got me home to his House, he would sell me for a Slave. So I bid him forbear to talk, for I would not come near the door of his House. Then he reviled me, and told me that he would send such a one after me, that should make my way bitter to my soul: So I turned to go away from him: But just as I turned my self to go thence, I felt him take hold of my flesh, and give me such a deadly twitch back, that I thought he had pull'd part of me after himself; This made me cry, O wretched Man! So I went on my way up the Hill.
(pp. 91-92)",,24431,"","""Then it came burning hot into my mind, whatever he said, and however he flattered, when he got me home to his House, he would sell me for a Slave.""","",2014-09-02 15:27:23 UTC,""