The journal of Montaigne's travels in Italy by way of Switzerland and Germany in 1580 and 1581, Volume 1 (of 3)Montaigne, Michel de
Philosophy
The journal of Montaigne's travels in Italy by way of Switzerland and Germany in 1580 and 1581, Volume 1 (of 3)
Montaigne, Michel de
Germany -- Description and travel; Italy -- Description and travel; Switzerland -- Description and travel
The Jesuits, who sway the government mightily in this country, have
made a movement which has roused against them the hatred of the
people;[80] to wit, that they have put constraint on the priests to
make them send away their concubines under severe penalties. To judge
from the complaints made thereanent, it appears that this licence was
formerly granted to them so freely that they treated it as a legitimate
thing; moreover, they are now about to address a remonstrance to the
duke. It was here for the first time in Germany that they served us
eggs on a fast-day in any other way than quartered in a salad. At
table we had, amongst the silver, some wooden goblets made of pipe
staff and hooped. A young lady, the daughter of a gentleman of this
village, sent some wine to M. de Montaigne. Early on the Saturday we
set out and, after seeing on our right hand the river Yser and a great
lake[81] lying at the foot of the Bavarian mountains, and ascending
by road for an hour, we came to the summit of the pass, where we
found an inscription, recording how some hundred years ago a duke of
Bavaria had cleft this way through the rocks. Then we plunged straight
into the bowels of the Alps by an easy, convenient, and charmingly
made road, the fine calm weather being greatly in our favour. As we
descended from the summit aforesaid, we passed a very lovely lake[82]
about a Gascon league in length and the same in width, surrounded by
high and inaccessible mountains; and, keeping always the same road at
the base of the mountains, we came now and again upon small pleasant
level meadows with dwellings thereon, and arrived without halting at
Mittevol,[83] a little Bavarian village, pleasantly placed on the bank
of the Yser. Here we ate the first chestnuts we had seen in Germany,
served raw. In the hostelry there is a hot room, in which travellers
go to get sweated for a charge of a batz and a half. I myself went
to see it, while Messieurs were at supper, and found there several
Germans, who were being cupped and bled. On the morrow, Sunday, October
23rd, we set forth on the same path amongst the mountains, and soon
came to a house and a gate which barred the passage. This was the
entrance to the country of Tirol, belonging to the Archduke of Austria,
and after travelling three leagues we arrived in time for dinner
at Seefelden,[84] a small village with an abbey standing in a very
pleasant site.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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