ody and insidious state-craft of Milan and the
Lombard cities, Cardan would naturally shrink from committing himself to
any such perilous utterance: all the more for the reason that he had
already formed an estimate of the English as a fierce and cruel people.
With his character as a magician to maintain he could scarcely keep entire
silence, so he wrote down for the satisfaction of his interrogators a
horoscope: a mere perfunctory piece of work, as we learn afterwards. He
begins by reciting the extraordinary nature of the King's birth, repeating
the legend that his mother was delivered of him by surgical aid, and only
lived a few hours afterwards; and declares that, in his opinion, it would
have been better had this boy never been born at all. "Nevertheless,
seeing that he had come into this world and been duly trained and
educated, it would be well for mankind were he to live long, for all the
graces waited upon him. Boy as he was, he was skilled in divers tongues,
Latin, English, and French, and not unversed in Greek, Italian, and
Spanish; he had likewise knowledge of dialectics, natural philosophy, and
music. His culture is the reflection of our mortal nature; his gravity
that of kingly majesty, and his disposition is worthy of so illustrious a
prince. Speaking generally, it was indeed a strange experience to realize
that this boy of so great talent and promise was being educated in the
knowledge of the affairs of men. I have not set forth his accomplishments,
tricked out with rhetoric so as to exceed the truth; of which, in sooth,
my relation falls short." Cardan next draws a figure of Edward's
horoscope, and devotes several pages to the customary jargon of
astrologers; and, under the heading "De animi qualitatibus," says: "There
was something portentous about this boy. He had learnt, as I heard, seven
languages, and certainly he knew thoroughly his own, French, and Latin. He
was skilled in Dialectic, and eager to be instructed in all subjects. When
I met him, he was in his fifteenth year, and he asked me (speaking Latin
no less perfectly and fluently than myself), 'What is contained in those
rare books of yours, _De rerum varietate_?' for I had dedicated these
manuscripts to his name.[155] Whereupon I began by pointing out to him
what I had written in the opening chapter on the cause of the comets which
others had sought so long in vain. He was curious to hear more of this
cause, so I went on to tell him that it was