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Imposture 4

Euphues’ Damietta

In this Imposture, Abū Zayd and his son discuss whether we should always expect our friends to reciprocate our kindness, or instead be willing to give without getting anything back. Reciprocity is also the theme of John Lyly’s (d. 1606) romance Euphues (1578), making the so-called euphuistic style, with its elaborate conceits, learned allusions, and long, delicately balanced sentences, a natural choice for the speakers in this episode.

4.1Ben Hamam vttered this speache:

It happened me to ariue, trailing the robes of a rich patrimonie, at Damietta, in a yeare of Clamour and Strife. In those days I was as much admired for the encrease of my Possessions as secure in the enioyment of true Friendship, for I wanted neither Meate, nor Musicke, nor any other pastime. I spent the flourishe of my gladdest Dayes in league wth a goodly companie of younge Gentlemen who loved Amitie and loathed Discord, and in whom sympathy of Manners so made coniunction of Mindes, that they kept all things in common betweene them. We were wont to journey on fleet She-Camills, as wth swiftest Wings, no sooner halted at each way-station but departed, and no sooner led to Water but agayne upon the Road.

4.2And one night above the rest, at an houre as black as the raven haires of Youth, we ranged abrode until the Skie glowed as white as the hoary heade of Age. Wearied wth travel, and craving slumber, we came upon a breadth of land as delightful for the Dews that fell upon the Hills as for the Airs that sighed upon the Grass. As a halting-place for Camills, and a Camp for ourselves, the companye could wish itself no better, and so alighted.

No sooner had the grvnting of Camills and the snoring of Men once abated, but I heard a Voice sounde from some other Tente hard by, asking his Fellow this Question: “What usest thou to bear of thy Feres, or suffer from thy Friends?”

4.3The other answered him, “I show my dutie to my Neighbor, though he fall from his to me. By how much the more my Friend blvster and bellow, by so much the more do I protest my Regard; and take him by so much the more patiently, by howe much the more I doute his Faith. To him will I show Amity, even though he quat me wth his Slibber-Sawce, for no Blood-brother can be of more Valewe then a Friend. Doth one in whose bosome thou maist sleepe secure without Feare, not deserue thy Loyalty, although he pinch on thy Side? To whom shouldst thou show Courtesy, if not to him, that lodgeth wth thee? For whom shouldst thou strew green Rushes, if not for thy Guest? Hee who spendeth the night delighting me wth Talk is for that tract of tyme the Master of my house, and he who proclaimeth himself Friend has my Hand, my Heart, my Lands, and my Lyfe at his Commaundement. To him that disliketh me I speak gently, and of him that waxeth cold to me do I most eagerly enquire. If he requite Constancy wth Disdain, let him proffer but a Trifle in Amends; if he be penitent, I am content. Lions spare those that couch to them, and the Tigress biteth not when she is clawed.”

4.4His fellowe replyed:

“My Sonne! Wither art thou carried? Hee that lendeth to all that will borrow showeth great good Will but little Wit. I enter league only wth him whose trust I have tried, and care only for his Honour, that hath a care for mine. Why shouldst thou take for pleasure in prosperity one that giveth no solace in adversity? Or seek a merry companion in joy who giveth no comfort in grief? Wouldst thou contract amity wth him that giveth a cold countenance, and feedeth thee wth idle hope? Wouldst thou be accounted a meacock, a milksop, by one who under the show of a steadfast friend cloaketh the malice of a mortal foe, and under the cloud of simplicity shroudeth the image of deceit? Behold, my sonne, the falsehood in friendship, the painted sheath wth the leaden dagger, the fair words that make fools fain!

4.5“Where is it ordained that thou shouldst sow and he shouldst reap? That thou be kind and he unkind? That thy heart should melt and his freeze? That thy flame should blaze while his embers cool? Nay, contract wth thy friend a reciprocal amity, each requiting the other grain for grain, as much alike as a pair of shoes! In such manner shall each no more be a fool then make one of his fellow, and no more fear a grudge than bear one. Else, one shall live in Joy and Merriment, and the other in Cark and Care, thou pinned to his Sleeve, and he standing on his Pantofles. Is Equity to be gained by Injury, more than is the Sunne to be seen in Darkenes? Why shouldst thou be taunted and retaunted, flouted and reflouted, wth intolerable Glee? Nay, pluck up thy Stomach, and heed thy Father’s Poem:

4.6I loue no man but him that loueth me

And requiteth what I give, Pound for Pound;

I let no Frute fall freely from the Tree

Nor strewe my Harvest heedlesse on the Grounde.

Friend, if thou wouldst gather what we growe,

Thou must needs with me till the Soyle I sowe.

I seeke not to deceive, nor do I slide,

But imagine not, that thou canst beguile me:

I shall have from thy Purse, or from thy Hide

An Account of all that I have rendered thee.

I know not, whether he that steals thy Purse,

Or he who never op’neth his, be worse!”

4.7Ben Hamam continved:

Thinking that the sight of these two Champions would be as much diverting to the Eye, as their Discourse was to the Ear, I went forth, when the Sunne had beset wth his Beames the Sky, ere the Companie mount, or the Crow fly, in the way whence came the Voices I hearde in the Night, sifting each Face I spied, till I beheld at last Aboo Zeid, clad in ragged Cloutes, speaking wth his Sonne; and knew them to be those that yesternight used the Dialogue I heard.

As much eager to try their Curtesie, as moved to Pitie by their State, I approached near to them, and invited them to alight at my Camp, placing at their Commaundement, all that was mine, whether in Prosperitie, or Adversitie. Presently I praised them to the Companie, that adopted them as Friends; and by my doing shook before them laden Boughs, that battered them down wth Frute. We were that Evening at a high Camping-Place that gave a view of the Towns below, and of the cheerful Fires kindled therein, at which Sight, Aboo Zeid, perceiving that his Budget was now as full as his Miserie abated, declared himself filthish and mucky, and asked leave to descend to a Town, where he might bathe himself, and join Healthe of Body, to Ease of Mind.

4.8I answered him thus: “If thou must go, make all haste to depart, and as much to repaire.” To which he replyed: “I shall be agayn before you as quick as Sight to the Eye.” Presently he started up like a Horse pricked wth the Spurr, bidding his Sonne: “Goe, runne, flye!” I no more mistrusted them of Fleeting, than suspected them of Fraud.

As longingly as men attend a Feast, so did we attend their Return, but Nothing. At length we sent certain of the Companie to look for their Coming, but yet Nothing. How long we attended, it were tedious to write; let it suffice, that like a Bank or Cliff that hath been eaten by the Floode, so that some Part of it every Hour falls, the Daye by stealth dropt away; and, like a lewd Strumpet who, at the coming of old Age, repents of the hot assaults of Youth, and vows to end her Dayes in Rags, the Sunne, forgetting it had once been young, sank behind a tattered Cloud; seeing which, I said to my Companions: “Our Friend is false, even as Musk, although it be sweet in the Smell, is sour in the Smack. We have tarried too long, and lost the Daye. Let us stand not in a Mammering, but depart, for we have swallowed a Gudgen!”

4.9As I rose to mount my Camill, my Eye fell on the Saddle, and I saw that Aboo Zeid had scribbled on the Pommel:

O Friend in my Adversitie,

Acquit me of Uncourtesy:

Not in Weariness, nor Pride,

Did I command my Son to ride,

But in Duty to the Holy Verse

That sayeth: “Sup ye, then disperse!”

I read this scribble alowde to the Companie, so that those that had blamed him might forgive, and those that rebuked him be content. Marvelling no less at his Tale, than at his Bale, no more at his Fame, than at his Bane, we mounted, wondering where, the Sky grown dark, he should find another Mark.

Glossary

4.2

feres companions

4.3

though he fall from his to me though he fail in his duty to me

quat me wth his Slibber-Sawce nauseate me with his dirty wash-water or filthy ointment

pinch on thy Side avoid paying what he owes you

4.4

Wither art thou carried? You can’t be serious!

meacock weakling

fain compliant

4.5

Cark distress

pinned to his Sleeve wrapped around his little finger

standing on his Pantofles holding his head high

4.7

Cloutes clothes

Budget wallet

4.8

Smack taste

stand not in a Mammering not hesitate

swallowed a Gudgen been tricked

4.9

Bale wickedness

Bane misfortune

Notes

Although al-Ḥarīrī and Lyly share a penchant for balanced clauses and rhymed prose, they differ in other respects. Al-Ḥarīrī uses a great deal of obscure vocabulary, but the need to rhyme at regular intervals keeps his clauses relatively short. Lyly, conversely, makes no special effort to pile on difficult words, but revels in long, tangled sentences. The translation splits the difference: it uses shorter sentences than Lyly would like, but tries to employ as many of his favorite rhetorical devices as possible. To imitate al-Ḥarīrī’s use of rare words, I have used expressions from Lyly that may not have been rare in his time but are now oddly charming or completely unknown. The more difficult of these are explained in the Glossary. Whether listed there or not, all the words in the translation are attested either in Lyly’s works or (in those few cases when those did not suffice) in OED citations from the same period. The spelling reproduces a few features of Lyly’s (very inconsistent) orthography, in the hope of conveying a sense of the visual character of Elizabethan writing and printing.

“Pinch on thy side” is adapted from “to pinch on the parson’s side,” to save money by withholding the tithe one owes the church (Lyly, Euphues, p. 72, n. 2).

“As a pair of shoes” probably refers to a pair of horseshoes, as the left and right were the same.

The sequence about waiting a long time is based on a letter Lyly wrote to Queen Elizabeth protesting her neglect of him (Lyly, Complete Works, 1:70–71). The extended metaphors of the cliff and the sun are based on mere phrases in al-Ḥarīrī, but since Lyly loves to extend his metaphors, I chose to expand these, thereby also compensating in part for the many Haririan metaphors I have smoothed away elsewhere. Part of the language about the cliff comes (anachronistically) from Lane’s Arabic-English Lexicon, s.v. j-r-f.

Bibliography

Lyly, John. The Complete Works of John Lyly. Vol. 1, Life: Euphues: The Anatomy Of Wyt; Entertainments, edited by R. Warwick Bond. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1902.

. Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit; Euphues and His England. Edited by Morris William Croll and Harry Clemons. London: Routledge, 1916.