, while it is likely enough that some of the stories were
taken from facts which had there come to his knowledge. As in many of
the romances of that age, a number of episodes are introduced into the
main story, which consists of the adventures of a strolling company.
These are mainly amatory, and all indelicate, while some are as coarse
as anything in French literature. Scarron had little of the clear wit of
Rabelais to atone for this; but he makes up for it, in a measure, by the
utter absurdity of some of his incidents. Not the least curious part of
the book is the Preface, in which he gives a description of himself, in
order to contradict, as he affirms, the extravagant reports circulated
about him, to the effect that he was set upon a table, in a cage, or
that his hat was fastened to the ceiling by a pulley, that he might
'pluck it up or let it down, to do compliment to a friend, who honoured
him with a visit.' This description is a tolerable specimen of his
style, and we give it in the quaint language of an old translation,
published in 1741:--

'I am past thirty, as thou may'st see by the back of my Chair. If I live
to be forty, I shall add the Lord knows how many Misfortunes to those I
have already suffered for these eight or nine Years past. There was a
Time when my Stature was not to be found fault with, tho' now 'tis of
the smallest. My Sickness has taken me shorter by a Foot. My Head is
somewhat too big, considering my Height; and my Face is full enough, in
all Conscience, for one that carries such a Skeleton of a Body about
him. I have Hair enough on my Head not to stand in need of a Peruke; and
'tis gray, too, in spite of the Proverb. My Sight is good enough, tho'
my Eyes are large; they are of a blue Colour, and one of them is sunk
deeper into my Head than the other, which was occasion'd by my leaning
on that Side. My Nose is well enough mounted. My Teeth, which in the
Days of Yore look'd like a Row of square Pearl, are now of an Ashen
Colour; and in a few Years more, will have the Complexion of a
Small-coal Man's Saturday Shirt. I have lost one Tooth and a half on the
left Side, and two and a half precisely on the right; and I have two
more that stand somewhat out of their Ranks. My Legs and Thighs, in the
first place, compose an obtuse Angle, then a right one, and lastly an
acute. My Thighs and Body make another; and my Head, leaning perpetually
over my Belly, I fancy makes me not very unlike the Letter Z.