A Scourge for a Railer, Treatise · Part 5
The 5. imputation of ignorance.
The accusation.
1. Because the Replyer translateth those wordes of Augustine: apud inferos custodiae mancipari: to be kept in hell: this Reuiler saith, eueryevery Grammarian knoweth to be false, and that the true translation is, to be kept in bondage, or held captiue in hell: and further for this signification of the word, he alleadgeth Tullie, Lucretius, and Plautus. 3. b. p. 3.3. b. p. 3.
2. Because the Replyer translateth out of Hierom,5. Imputation. caprearum oculos, Goates eies; he thus layeth about him: doe you make no difference betweene capra and caprea, a Goate and a Roe-bucke? that you mistranslate. Hieroms words, eueryevery boy may see. 3. b. p. 99.3. b. p. 99.
3. Thus this profound Grecian bestirreth him. p. 107.3. b. p. 107. And for the verbe foreign, whereon you ground your whole fancie, the meanest Grecian knoweth it is not an actiue, but a passiue: and therefore most vnlearnedly translated by you, preacheth.
4. Againe, he according to his great skill chanllengeth also the Replier, for writing false Hebrew, as cheber for keber, 3. b. p. 136.a graue.
The iustification.
1. THough the Replyer hath not spent so much time in teaching of Grammer, as this perke Pedantius hath done; yet he knew what the proper signification of the verbe mancipo was, before the other knew how to decline a noune, or coniugate a verbe: for, though mancipo put absolutely, signifie to deliuer into bondage, or possession; yet the other word custodiae beeing put vntounto it, doth somewhat alter the signification: So that mancipari custodiae, signifieth to bee committed or deliuered vp to keeping. And what is this else (Sir Grammarian) but in a shorter phrase, to be kept? And will he needs hauehave it englished, kept in bondage? then it will follow vponupon Augustines words (Shall we thinke any to bee so impious, that dare say that the soule of our Sauiour, &c. was three daies held captiue in hell) that Christs soule was held captiue in hell, though not three daies. But I thinke hee is not so absurd, as to graunt, that it was there held captiue at all. These three latine Authors are impertinently alleadged: Lucretius, for the vse of the word mancipium: Plautus, for the word manceps: and Tullie, for the word mancipo: whereas he should hauehave produced them concerning this phrase, mancipari custodiae.
2. And eueryevery Grammer or dictionarie boy could hauehave told him, that caprea as well signifieth a wildaSee Adrianus, Iunius, and Dictionar. Thomasij. goate, as a Roe-bucke: Gesner saith, that caprae, eaedem & capreae, that the same are called by both names: which are wilde goates, whom the Grecians of their seeing call (dorcas) they stay in the mountaines, Gesn…r de capris syluestr.and (though afarre off) see those which are comming, &c. He also sheweth out of Martial, that hee taketh caprea for rupicapra, for the wilde goate, or rocke goate. Gesner de caprea.And Gesner himselfe confesseth; that the (caprea) is de genere caprarum syluestrium, of the kind of wild goats. And he alleadgeth out of Aristotle, that the caprea is the smallest of all horned beasts: and therefore commeth neerer the nature of a goate, then of a bucke.
3. But our cracking Grecian goeth on to shewe his skill in the Greeke tongue, as he hath done in the latine. Indeed he is a very mean Grecian, that knoweth not that foreign may as well bee of the meane voice, as of the passiue, and so may be translated as well actiuely, preacheth; as passiuely, preached. And is it indeede vnlearnedly translated preacheth? Then were the Septuagints vnlearned, that so interpret the actiue in the Hebrew, tikra; for they were not so ignorant, as to expresse an actiue by a passiue. Likewise, they in the same place interpret another actiue in the Hebrew, taronah, by a verbe of the meane voice, foreign; which both the Latine translater, Montanus, and Pagnine expresse by the actiue, praedicat, preacheth. All these also must goe for vnlearned translaters in the blind iudgement of this new Grammarian, who taketh vponupon him to teach Diuines, when hee seemeth scarce able to teach boyes their Grammer.
4. But his Hebrew Rabbinicall science, will helpe out his small intelligence in the Greeke: forsooth a letter is mistaken, cheth is put for coph: a great matter. But is hee sure the author mistooke it? I thinke not: for hee might hauehave found else-where, that this word is written with coph: Synops. p. 1050.which corner hee had sought before to finde dust, but hee sawe not the besome, that would hauehave serued to sweepe it away.
The Recrimination.
1. As hee challenged the Replyer (but beside his booke) for the signification of the word caprea, 2. b. p. 107.what beast it should betoken; so hee shall first be apposed with the like question: what kinde of beast pardus is? a Leopard it is not, for that is called Leopardus, a Leopard, or Libbard. Then was this Etymologist ouerseene, in translating out of Origen, pardum cum haed…, the Leopard and the Kidde.Gesner de Panthera. Gesner sheweth, that the Leopard is a diuers beast from the Pardus, as he alleadgeth out of Isidorus, Ex adulterio Pardi & Le…nae, Leopardus nascitur▪ The Leopard is ingendred by the adulterous commixtion of the Pard and the Lionesse. The Leopard he thinketh to be the same, which the English men call the Cat a mountaine. It is true that both our English translations doe read Leopard in that place of Isay, chap. 11. v. 6. but in so translating, they expresse not the word pardus in the Latine; but the Hebrew word namer, which serueth both for Pardus and Leopardus. But we pardon him this small ouersight, and will not insist vponupon it.
2. But his Latine scapes are not so many, for it were a starke shame for a man to mis…e in his ordinary trade: it would pi…tie a man to see how he … in the Greeke. 2. b. p. 178.2. b. p. 178. He translateth, Iob. 38. 17. foreign, the gates of hell: whereas both the interpreter of the Septuag. the Latine translator, with Vatablus and others, read the gates of death.
3. 3. b. p. 82.3. b. p. 82. Twice he setting downe the Replyers words, readeth foreign, wheras the word is foreign, as Limbomastix hath it. p. 32. 33. This error falling out twice within 10. lines, may argue ignorance rather in the penman, then ouersight in the Printer.
4. So in another place, hee writeth foreign for foreign, to saue aliue. 1. b. p. 29.1. b. p. 29. in the margen; and that his ignorance may appeare, he still retaineth the same word foreign. 3. b. p. 86.3. b. p. 86. and foreign, for viuificare, to reuiue, or saue: whereas, there is no such word at all in the Greeke,The confuter detected to bee no Grecian. much lesse in that sense. For the Greeke word which signifieth to saue, is foreign, which maketh in the future foreign: the other word, which beginneth with foreign is foreign, which maketh foreign in the future, which signifieth to liue: and this for a tast of his greeke.
5. As vnsauery a relish hath his hebrew smattering: for in stead of the hebrew word carah to liue, 1. b. p. 30.he writeth caia, with aleph in stead of he, there being no such hebrew word. And lest he might excuse it by ouersight, he writeth the same word againe after the same manner. 2. b. p. 159.2. b. p. 159. and the third time so likewise. 3. b. p. 86.3. b. p. 86.
6. The hebrew word keber, hee according to his skill will hauehave taken for hell,3. b. p. 28. Psal. 88. 10. whereas all interpreters, doe there read and vnderstand the graue: the Septuag. foreign: the vulgar latine, Vatabl. Montan. Pagnin. in sepulchro, in the graue. And so our English also.
7. Further, in the very same place, that his hebrew profunditie may sufficiently be testified to all men, he noteth another word foreign, perdition, in the same verse: can any man tell what this word is?The Confuter discouered to hauehave no skill in the hebrew. the Hebrew word there vsed is foreign, abaddon: where he leaueth out the letter vaf with the vowell cholem. What a shame is it for a man so vtterly ignorant in the languages, to take vponupon him to controll others, beeing more blameable himselfe? By this viewe of his grosse slips in Greeke and Hebrewe, I am induced to thinke that report to be true, which hath beene giuen out by some that knewe him in Oxford; that what ostentation soeuer hee maketh now, hee was thought to hauehave no great skill either in Hebrew or Greeke then.
Now it falleth out vponupon him, according to that saying of a Greeke Father,Gregor. Nysser. foreign: nothing maketh a man so vnshamefast (he would hauehave translated impudent) as a bad conscience. 6. Imputation.So this talkatiue tasker of others, hauing a bad conscience, not caring what he said or obiected to others, though neuer so vntrue, is without measure bold and bragging. I may say of him, as Hierom of his aduersarie, that professed generall skill in whatsoeuer:Apolog. 3. ad vers. Ruffin. tu, fella publice posita, Hermagoram nobis, & Gorgiam exhibes Leontinum: you (your chaire beeing set aloft) doe offer your selfe as another Hermagoras, and Gorgias; which tooke vponupon them to dispute of any matter propounded vntounto them. So this Crazy Craker would make himselfe a professed linguist in all the learned tongues, beeing nothing else then a wrangling verbalist.