Literature, Medieval -- Translations into English; Tales
From thence went Faustus to Basil, in Switzerland, where the river of
Rhine runneth through the town, parting the same as the river of Thames
doth London: in the town of Basil he saw many rich monuments, the town
walled with brick round about, without it goeth a great trench: no
church pleased him but the Jesuits' church, which was sumptuously
builded, and set full of alabaster pillars, where the spirit told
Faustus that before the city was founded, there used a Basiliscus, a
kind of serpent: this serpent killed as many men, women and children as
he took a sight of, but there was a knight that made himself a cover of
crystal, to come over his head and down to the ground, and being first
covered with a black cloth, over that he put the crystal, and so boldly
went to see the Basiliscus, and finding the place where she haunted, he
expected her coming even before the mouth of the cave, where standing a
while, the Basiliscus came forth, where when she saw her own venomous
shadow in the crystal, she split in a thousand pieces, wherefore the
knight was richly rewarded of the emperor, after the which the knight
founded this town upon the place where he had slain the serpent, and
gave it the name Basil, in remembrance of his deed.
From Basil, Faustus went to Costnitz in Sweitz, at the head of the
Rhine, where is a most sumptuous bridge that goeth over the Rhine, even
from the gates of the town to the other side of the stream; at the head
of the river of Rhine, is a small sea, called of the Switzers the Black
Sea, twenty thousand paces long, and fifty hundred paces broad. The town
Costnitz took the name of this; the emperor gave it a clown for
expounding of his riddle: wherefore the clown named the town Costnitz,
that is in English, "Cost me nothing."
From Costnitz he came to Ulm, where he saw the sumptuous town house
built by two-and-fifty of the ancient senators of the city; it took the
name Ulm, because the whole land thereabouts is full of Elms: but
Faustus minding to depart from thence, his spirit said unto him,
"Faustus, think of the town as you will; it hath three dukedoms
belonging to it, the which they have bought with ready money."
From Ulm he came unto Watzberg, the chiefest town in Frankland, wherein
the bishop altogether keepeth his court, through the which town passeth
the river Mayne, that runs into the Rhine; thereabouts groweth strong
and pleasant wine, the which Faustus well proved: the castle standeth on
a hill on the north side of the town, at the foot thereof runneth the
river. This town is full of beggarly friars, nuns, priests, and Jesuits;
for there are five sorts of begging friars, besides three cloisters of
nuns; at the foot of the castle stands a church, in the which there is
an altar, where are engraven all the four elements, and all the orders
and degrees in heaven, that any man of understanding whosoever, that
hath a light thereof, may say that it is the artificialist thing that
ever he beheld.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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