A Year's Journey through France and Part of Spain, Volume 2 (1777) — John Shaqi
A Year's Journey through France and Part of Spain, Volume 2 (1777)Thicknesse, Philip
History
A Year's Journey through France and Part of Spain, Volume 2 (1777)
Thicknesse, Philip
France -- Description and travel; Spain -- Description and travel
There was not quite so good an understanding between the Pope's
_Legate_ and the English residing here, as could be wished; some
untoward circumstance had happened, and there seemed to be faults on
both sides; it was carried, I think, to such a length, that when the
English met him, they did not pull off their hats; but as it happened
before I came, and as in our walks and rides we often met him airing in
his coach, we paid that respect which is everywhere due to a first
magistrate, and he took great pains to return it most graciously; his
livery, guards, &c. make a very splendid appearance: he holds a court,
and is levee'd every Sunday, though not liked by the French. At the
church of St. _Didier_, in a little chapel, of mean workmanship, is the
tomb of the celebrated _Laura_, whose name _Petrarch_ has rendered
immortal; the general opinion is, that she died a virgin; but it appears
by her tomb, that she was the wife of _Hugues de Sade_, and that she
had many children. About two hundred years after her death, some curious
people got permission to open her tomb, in which they found a little
box, containing some verses written by _Petrarch_, and a medallion of
lead, on one side of which was a Lady's head and on the reverse, the
four following letters, M.L.M.E.
_Francis_ the First, passing thro' _Avignon_, visited this tomb, and
left upon it the following epitaph, of his own composition:
"En petit lien compris vous pouvez voir
Ce qui comprend beaucoup par renommèe
Plume, labour le langue & le devoir
Furent vaincus par l'aimant de l'aimée
O gentille ame, etant tant estimée
Qui le pourra louer quen se laissant?
Car la parole est toujours reprimée
Quand le sujet surmonte le disant."
This town is crowded with convents and churches. The convent of the
_Celestines_, founded by _Charles_ the VIth, is richly endowed, and has
noble gardens: there are not above fourteen or fifteen members, and
their revenue is near two thousand pounds sterling a year. In their
church is a very superb monument of Pope _Clement_ the VIIth, who died
here in the year 1394, as a long Latin inscription upon it announces.
They shew in this house a picture, painted by King _Renee_; it
represents the frightful remains of his beloved mistress, whose body he
took out of the grave, and painted it in the state he then found it,
i.e. with the worms crawling about it: it is a hideous figure, and
hideously painted; the stone coffin stands on a line with the figure,
but is above a foot too short for the body; and on the other side is a
long scrole of verses, written in Gothic characters, which begin thus:
"_Une fois fus sur toutes femmes belle
Mais par la mort suis devenue telle
Machair estoit tres-belle fraische & tendre
O'r est elle toute tournee en cendre._"
There follow at least forty other such lines.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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