The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci — Complete
beak, it prayed the wall by the grace bestowed on it by God in
allowing it to be so high and thick, and to own such fine bells and
of so noble a tone, that it would succour it, and that, as it had
not been able to fall under the verdurous boughs of its venerable
father and lie in the fat earth covered up by his fallen leaves it
would not abandon it; because, finding itself in the beak of the
cruel crow, it had there made a vow that if it escaped from her it
would end its life in a little hole. At these words the wall, moved
to compassion, was content to shelter it in the spot where it had
fallen; and after a short time the nut began to split open and put
forth roots between the rifts of the stones and push them apart, and
to throw out shoots from its hollow shell; and, to be brief, these
rose above the building and the twisted roots, growing thicker,
began to thrust the walls apart, and tear out the ancient stones
from their old places. Then the wall too late and in vain bewailed
the cause of its destruction and in a short time, it wrought the
ruin of a great part of it.
1278.
A FABLE.
The privet feeling its tender boughs loaded with young fruit,
pricked by the sharp claws and beak of the insolent blackbird,
complained to the blackbird with pitious remonstrance entreating her
that since she stole its delicious fruits she should not deprive it
of the leaves with which it preserved them from the burning rays of
the sun, and that she should not divest it of its tender bark by
scratching it with her sharp claws. To which the blackbird replied
with angry upbraiding: "O, be silent, uncultured shrub! Do you not
know that Nature made you produce these fruits for my nourishment;
do you not see that you are in the world [only] to serve me as food;
do you not know, base creature, that next winter you will be food
and prey for the Fire?" To which words the tree listened patiently,
and not without tears. After a short time the blackbird was taken in
a net and boughs were cut to make a cage, in which to imprison her.
Branches were cut, among others from the pliant privet, to serve for
the small rods of the cage; and seeing herself to be the cause of
the Blackbird's loss of liberty it rejoiced and spoke as follows: "O
Blackbird, I am here, and not yet burnt by fire as you said. I shall
see you in prison before you see me burnt."
A FABLE.
The laurel and the myrtle seeing the pear tree cut down cried out
with a loud voice: "O pear-tree! whither are you going? Where is the
pride you had when you were covered with ripe fruits? Now you will
no longer shade us with your mass of leaves." Then the pear-tree
replied: "I am going with the husbandman who has cut me down and who
will take me to the workshop of a good sculptor who by his art will
make me take the form of Jove the god; and I shall be dedicated in a
temple and adored by men in the place of Jove, while you are bound
always to remain maimed and stripped of your boughs, which will be
placed round me to do me honour.
A FABLE.
The chesnut, seeing a man upon the fig-tree, bending its boughs down
and pulling off the ripe fruits, which he put into his open mouth
destroying and crushing them with his hard teeth, it tossed its long
boughs and with a noisy rustle exclaimed: "O fig! how much less are
you protected by nature than I. See how in me my sweet offspring are
set in close array; first clothed in soft wrappers over which is the
hard but softly lined husk; and not content with taking this care of
me, and having given them so strong a shelter, on this she has
placed sharp and close-set spines so that the hand of man cannot
hurt me." Then the fig-tree and her offspring began to laugh and
having laughed she said: "I know man to be of such ingenuity that
with rods and stones and stakes flung up among your branches he will
bereave you of your fruits; and when they are fallen, he will
trample them with his feet or with stones, so that your offspring
will come out of their armour, crushed and maimed; while I am
touched carefully by their hands, and not like you with sticks and
stones."
1279.
The hapless willow, finding that she could not enjoy the pleasure of
seeing her slender branches grow or attain to the height she wished,
or point to the sky, by reason of the vine and whatever other trees
that grew near, but was always maimed and lopped and spoiled,
brought all her spirits together and gave and devoted itself
entirely to imagination, standing plunged in long meditation and
seeking, in all the world of plants, with which of them she might
ally herself and which could not need the help of her withes. Having
stood for some time in this prolific imagination, with a sudden
flash the gourd presented itself to her thoughts and tossing all her
branches with extreme delight, it seemed to her that she had found
the companion suited to her purpose, because the gourd is more apt
to bind others than to need binding; having come to this conclusion
she awaited eagerly some friendly bird who should be the mediator of
her wishes. Presently seeing near her the magpie she said to him: "O
gentle bird! by the memory of the refuge which you found this
morning among my branches, when the hungry cruel, and rapacious
falcon wanted to devour you, and by that repose which you have
always found in me when your wings craved rest, and by the pleasure
you have enjoyed among my boughs, when playing with your companions
or making love--I entreat you find the gourd and obtain from her
some of her seeds, and tell her that those that are born of them I
will treat exactly as though they were my own flesh and blood; and
in this way use all the words you can think of, which are of the
same persuasive purport; though, indeed, since you are a master of
language, I need not teach you. And if you will do me this service I
shall be happy to have your nest in the fork of my boughs, and all
your family without payment of any rent." Then the magpie, having
made and confirmed certain new stipulations with the willow,--and
principally that she should never admit upon her any snake or
polecat, cocked his tail, and put down his head, and flung himself
from the bough, throwing his weight upon his wings; and these,
beating the fleeting air, now here, now there, bearing about
inquisitively, while his tail served as a rudder to steer him, he
came to a gourd; then with a handsome bow and a few polite words, he
obtained the required seeds, and carried them to the willow, who
received him with a cheerful face. And when he had scraped away with
his foot a small quantity of the earth near the willow, describing a
circle, with his beak he planted the grains, which in a short time
began to grow, and by their growth and the branches to take up all
the boughs of the willow, while their broad leaves deprived it of
the beauty of the sun and sky. And not content with so much evil,
the gourds next began, by their rude hold, to drag the ends of the
tender shoots down towards the earth, with strange twisting and
distortion.
Then, being much annoyed, it shook itself in vain to throw off the
gourd. After raving for some days in such plans vainly, because the
firm union forbade it, seeing the wind come by it commended itself
to him. The wind flew hard and opened the old and hollow stem of the
willow in two down to the roots, so that it fell into two parts. In
vain did it bewail itself recognising that it was born to no good
end.
III.
JESTS AND TALES.
C. A. 117a; 361a]
1280.
A JEST.
A priest, making the rounds of his parish on Easter Eve, and
sprinkling holy water in the houses as is customary, came to a
painter's room, where he sprinkled the water on some of his
pictures. The painter turned round, somewhat angered, and asked him
why this sprinkling had been bestowed on his pictures; then said the
priest, that it was the custom and his duty to do so, and that he
was doing good; and that he who did good might look for good in
return, and, indeed, for better, since God had promised that every
good deed that was done on earth should be rewarded a hundred-fold
from above. Then the painter, waiting till he went out, went to an
upper window and flung a large pail of water on the priest's back,
saying: "Here is the reward a hundred-fold from above, which you
said would come from the good you had done me with your holy water,
by which you have damaged my pictures."
1281.
When wine is drunk by a drunkard, that wine is revenged on the
drinker.
1282.
Wine, the divine juice of the grape, finding itself in a golden and
richly wrought cup, on the table of Mahomet, was puffed up with
pride at so much honour; when suddenly it was struck by a contrary
reflection, saying to itself: "What am I about, that I should
rejoice, and not perceive that I am now near to my death and shall
leave my golden abode in this cup to enter into the foul and fetid
caverns of the human body, and to be transmuted from a fragrant and
delicious liquor into a foul and base one. Nay, and as though so
much evil as this were not enough, I must for a long time lie in
hideous receptacles, together with other fetid and corrupt matter,
cast out from human intestines." And it cried to Heaven, imploring
vengeance for so much insult, and that an end might henceforth be
put to such contempt; and that, since that country produced the
finest and best grapes in the whole world, at least they should not
be turned into wine. Then Jove made that wine drunk by Mahomet to
rise in spirit to his brain; and that in so deleterious a manner
that it made him mad, and gave birth to so many follies that when he
had recovered himself, he made a law that no Asiatic should drink
wine, and henceforth the vine and its fruit were left free.
As soon as wine has entered the stomach it begins to ferment and
swell; then the spirit of that man begins to abandon his body,
rising as it were skywards, and the brain finds itself parting from
the body. Then it begins to degrade him, and make him rave like a
madman, and then he does irreparable evil, killing his friends.
1283.
An artizan often going to visit a great gentleman without any
definite purpose, the gentleman asked him what he did this for. The
other said that he came there to have a pleasure which his lordship
could not have; since to him it was a satisfaction to see men
greater than himself, as is the way with the populace; while the
gentleman could only see men of less consequence than himself; and
so lords and great men were deprived of that pleasure.
1284.
Franciscan begging Friars are wont, at certain times, to keep fasts,
when they do not eat meat in their convents. But on journeys, as
they live on charity, they have license to eat whatever is set
before them. Now a couple of these friars on their travels, stopped
at an inn, in company with a certain merchant, and sat down with him
at the same table, where, from the poverty of the inn, nothing was
served to them but a small roast chicken. The merchant, seeing this
to be but little even for himself, turned to the friars and said:
"If my memory serves me, you do not eat any kind of flesh in your
convents at this season." At these words the friars were compelled
by their rule to admit, without cavil, that this was the truth; so
the merchant had his wish, and eat the chicken and the friars did
the best they could. After dinner the messmates departed, all three
together, and after travelling some distance they came to a river of
some width and depth. All three being on foot--the friars by reason
of their poverty, and the other from avarice--it was necessary by
the custom of company that one of the friars, being barefoot, should
carry the merchant on his shoulders: so having given his wooden