It Were Advisable To Change One's
Dwelling-Place Often, So To Avoid The Inquiries Of Priests.
At Easter,
in Rome, Moryson found the fullest scope for his genius.
A few days
before Easter a priest came to his lodgings and took the inmates' names
in writing, to the end that they might receive the Sacrament with the
host's family. Moryson went from Rome on the Tuesday before Easter, came
to Siena on Good Friday, and upon Easter eve "(pretending great
business)" darted to Florence for the day. On Monday morning he dodged
to Pisa, and on the folowing, back to Siena. "Thus by often changing
places I avoyded the Priests inquiring after mee, which is most
dangerous about Easter time, when all men receive the Sacrament."[195]
The conception of travel one gathers from Fynes Moryson is that of a
very exciting form of sport, a sort of chase across Europe, in which the
tourist was the fox, doubling and turning and diving into cover, while
his friends in England laid three to one on his death. So dangerous was
travel at this time, that wagers on the return of venturous gentlemen
became a fashionable form of gambling.[196] The custom emanated from
Germany, Moryson explains, and was in England first used at Court and
among "very Noble men." Moryson himself put out L100 to receive L300 on
his return; but by 1595, when he contemplated a second journey, he would
not repeat the wager, because ridiculous voyages were by that time
undertaken for insurance money by bankrupts and by men of base
conditions.
Sir Henry Wotton was a celebrated product of foreign education in these
perilous times. As a student of political economy in 1592 he led a
precarious existence, visiting Rome with the greatest secrecy, and in
elaborate disguise. For years abroad he drank in tales of subtlety and
craft from old Italian courtiers, till he was well able to hold his own
in intrigue. By nature imaginative and ingenious, plots and counterplots
appealed to his artistic ability, and as English Ambassador to Venice,
he was never tired of inventing them himself or attributing them to
others. It was this characteristic of Jacobean politicians which Ben
Jonson satirized in Sir Politick-Would-be, who divulged his knowledge of
secret service to Peregrine in Venice. Greatly excited by the mention of
a certain priest in England, Sir Politick explains:
"He has received weekly intelligence
Upon my knowledge, out of the Low Countries,
For all parts of the world, in cabbages;
And these dispensed again to ambassadors,
In oranges, musk-melons, apricocks - ,
Lemons, pome-citrons, and such-like: sometimes
In Colchester oysters, and your Selsey cockles."[197]
Later on Sir Politick gives instructions for travellers:
"Some few particulars I have set down,
Only for this meridian, fit to be known
Of your crude traveller....
First, for your garb, it must be grave and serious,
Very reserv'd and lock'd; not tell a secret
On any terms; not to your father: scarce
A fable, but with caution:
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