Gascon dialect

Tis you appear our full enjoyment, which was our despair, scattering his mists, cheering his cynic frowns.

For radiant brightness now dark Rabelais crowns, leaving your brave heroic cares, which must make better mankind and embalm your dust, so undeceiving us that now we see all wit in Gascon and in Cromarty.

Besides that Rabelais is conveyed to us, and that our Scotland is not barbarous.

J.

[slurping] To return to our weathers, I say that by the sovereign gift of heaven, the antiquity and genealogy of Gargantua hath been reserved for our use more full and perfect than any other except that of the Messiahs, whereof I mean not to speak, for it belongs not unto my purpose, and the devils, that is to say, the false accusers and dissembled gospelers, will therein oppose me.

This genealogy was found by John Andrew in a meadow, which he had near the Pole Arch, under the olive tree, as you go to Marseille, where as he was making them cast up some ditches, the diggers with their mattocks struck against a great brazen tomb, and unmeasurably long, for they could never find the end thereof, by reason that it entered too far within the sluices of Vienne.

Opening this tomb in a certain place thereof, sealed on the top with the mark of a goblet, about which was written in Etrurian letters, Hic Bibitur, they found nine flagons set in such order as they use to rank their kyles in Gascony, of which that which was placed in the middle had under it a big, fat, great, gray, pretty, small, moldy little pamphlet, smelling stronger but no better than roses.

In that book the said genealogy was found written all at length in a chancery hand, not in paper, not in parchment, nor in wax, but in the bark of an elm tree, yet so worn with the long tract of time that hardly could three letters together be there perfectly discerned.

Beyond it, Brabant, Limburg, Hainaut, and the wealthy cities of Flanders, and was on the point of excluding France from all communication with the rest of Europe except through his states, by seizing the Provençal dominions of René of Anjou.

The dukes of Bretagne and Bourbon, and the Count of Armagnac with his Gascons, were equally opposed to Louis, and there was not one of these potentates who would have scrupled for a moment to call in against him the English or any other foreigners.

In spite of all this he succeeded by unresting vigilance and craft in baffling them one by one, and in establishing his own power on the ruin of theirs.

On the other hand, the commons were with him, and favour to them was a ruling principle of his reign.

Leaving your brave heroic cares, which must make better mankind, and embalm your dust.

So undeceiving us, that now we see all wit in Gascon and in Cromarty.

Besides that Rabelais is conveyed to us, and that our Scotland is not barbarous.

J.

And the devils, that is to say, the false accusers and dissembled gospelers, will therein oppose me.

This genealogy was found by John Andrew in a meadow, which he had near the Pole Arch, under the olive tree, as you go to Marseilles, where as he was making them cast up some ditches, the diggers with their mattocks struck against a great brazen tomb, and unmeasurably long, for they could never find the end thereof, by reason that it entered too far within the sluices of Vienne.

Opening this tomb in a certain place thereof, sealed on the top with the mark of a goblet, about which was written in Etrurian letters, "Hic bibitur," they found nine flagons set in such order as they use to rank their kyles in Gascony, of which that which was placed in the middle had under it a big, fat, great, gray, pretty, small, moldy little pamphlet, smelling stronger but no better than roses.

In that book, the said genealogy was found written all at length in a chancery hand, not in paper, not in parchment, nor in wax, but in the bark of an elm tree, yet so worn with the long tract of time that hardly could three letters together be there perfectly discerned.

Scattering his mists, cheering his cynic frowns, for radiant brightness now dark Rabelais crowns.

Leaving your brave heroic cares, which must make better mankind, and embalm your dust, so undeceiving us, that now we see all wit in Gascon and in Cromarty.

Besides that Rabelais is conveyed to us, and that our Scotland is not barbarous.

J. de la Salle.

[slurping] To return to our weathers, I say that by the sovereign gift of heaven, the antiquity and genealogy of Gargantua hath been reserved for our use more full and perfect than any other except that of the Messias, whereof I mean not to speak, for it belongs not unto my purpose, and the devils, that is to say, the false accusers and dissembled gospelers, will therein oppose me.

This genealogy was found by John Andrew in a meadow, which he had near the pole arch, under the olive tree as you go to Narcé, where as he was making them cast up some ditches, the diggers with their mattocks struck against a great brazen tomb, and unmeasurably long, for they could never find the end thereof, by reason that it entered too far within the sluices of Vienne.

Opening this tomb in a certain place thereof, sealed on the top with the mark of a goblet, about which was written in Etrurian letters, "Hic bibitur," they found nine flagons set in such order as they use to rank their kyles in Gascony, of which that which was placed in the middle had under it a big, fat, great, gray, pretty, small, moldy little pamphlet, smelling stronger but no better than roses.

In that book, the said genealogy was found written all at length in a chancery hand, not in paper, not in parchment, nor in wax, but in the bark of an elm tree, yet so worn with the long tract of time that hardly could three letters together be there perfectly discerned.

Under the Merovingians and then Charlemagne, the Frankish kingdom pushes south over the Garonne and into the foothills.

They create the Duchy of Gascony and other frontier entities meant to buffer the empire against both Muslim Spain and unruly mountain peoples, Basques very much included.

Frankish annals complain regularly about Vascones' ambushing armies in narrow passes.

These are some of the earliest clear mentions of groups that look a lot like later Basques.

Written culture on the northern side of the Pyrenees is very much in Latin, with an emerging Romance vernacular that will one day become Gascon and French.

Being part of that political orbit tends to funnel elites into that written culture.

But the frontier status of Gascony and the southern slopes also creates space.

Marcher zones are messy.