he coupled and joined together; then said: Truth
itself is not truer than that it is certain thou wilt
be a cuckold a little after thy marriage. That
being done, he asked of Panurge the horoscope of his
nativity, which was no sooner by Panurge tendered unto
him, than that, erecting a figure, he very promptly
and speedily formed and fashioned a complete fabric
of the houses of heaven in all their parts, whereof
when he had considered the situation and the aspects
in their triplicities, he fetched a deep sigh, and
said: I have clearly enough already discovered
unto you the fate of your cuckoldry, which is unavoidable,
you cannot escape it. And here have I got of
new a further assurance thereof, so that I may now
hardily pronounce and affirm, without any scruple or
hesitation at all, that thou wilt be a cuckold; that
furthermore, thou wilt be beaten by thine own wife,
and that she will purloin, filch and steal of thy goods
from thee; for I find the seventh house, in all its
aspects, of a malignant influence, and every one of
the planets threatening thee with disgrace, according
as they stand seated towards one another, in relation
to the horned signs of Aries, Taurus, and Capricorn.
In the fourth house I find Jupiter in a decadence,
as also in a tetragonal aspect to Saturn, associated
with Mercury. Thou wilt be soundly peppered,
my good, honest fellow, I warrant thee. I will
be? answered Panurge. A plague rot thee, thou
old fool and doting sot, how graceless and unpleasant
thou art! When all cuckolds shall be at a general
rendezvous, thou shouldst be their standard-bearer.
But whence comes this ciron-worm betwixt these two
fingers? This Panurge said, putting the forefinger
of his left hand betwixt the fore and mid finger of
the right, which he thrust out towards Herr Trippa,
holding them open after the manner of two horns, and
shutting into his fist his thumb with the other fingers.
Then, in turning to Epistemon, he said: Lo
here the true Olus of Martial, who addicted and devoted
himself wholly to the observing the miseries, crosses,
and calamities of others, whilst his own wife, in
the interim, did keep an open bawdy-house. This
varlet is poorer than ever was Irus, and yet he is
proud, vaunting, arrogant, self-conceited, overweening,
and more insupportable than seventeen devils; in one
word, Ptochalazon, which term of old was applied to
the like beggarly strutting coxcombs. Come, let
us leave this madpash bedlam, this hairbrained fop,
and give him leave to rave and dose his bellyful with
his private and intimately acquainted devils, who,
if they were not the very worst of all infernal fiends,
would never have deigned to serve such a knavish barking
cur as this is. He hath not learnt the first
precept of philosophy, which is, Know thyself; for
whilst he braggeth and boasteth that he can discern
the least mote in the eye of another, he is not able
to see the huge block that puts out the sight of both
his eyes. This is such another Polypragmon as