A VOYAGE TO THE MOON.
THE TRANSLATOR TO THE READER.
It is now Seven and Twenty Years, since the Moon appeared firstHistorically on the English Horizon[1]: And let it not seem strange,that she should have retained Light and Brightness so long here,without Renovation; when we find by Experience, that in the Heavens,she never fails once a Month to Change and shift her Splendor. Forit is the Excellency of Art, to represent Nature even in her absence;and this being a Piece done to the Life, by one that had the advantageof the true Light, as well as the Skill of Drawing, in this kind, toPerfection; he left so good an Original, which was so well Copied byanother Hand, that the Picture might have served for many Years more,to have given the Lovers of the Moon, a sight of their Mistress, evenin the darkest Nights; and when she was retired to put on a clean Smockin Phoebus his Apartment; if they had been so curious, as to haveencouraged the Exposers.
However, Reader, you have now a second View of her, and that under thesame Cover with the Sun too, which is very rare; since these two werenever seen before in Conjunction. Yet I would have none be afraid,that their Eyes being dazzled with the glorious Light of the Sun, theyshould not see her; for Fancy will supply the Weakness of the Organ,and Imagination, by the help of this Mirrour, will not fail to discoverthem both; though Cynthia lye hid under Apollo's shining Mantle. And somuch for the Luminaries.
Now as to the Worlds, which, with Analogy to ours below, I may call theOld and New; that of the Moon having been discovered, tho imperfectly,by others, but the Sun owing its Discovery wholly to our Author:[2]I make no doubt, but the Ingenious Reader will find in both, soextraordinary and surprizing Rarities, as well Natural, Moral, asCivil; that if he be not as yet sufficiently disgusted with this lowerWorld, (which I am sure some are) to think of making a Voyage thither,as our Author has done; he will at least be pleased with his Relations.Nevertheless, since this Age produces a great many bold Wits, thatshoot even beyond the Moon, and cannot endure, (no more than ourAuthor) to be stinted by Magisterial Authority, and to believe nothingbut what Gray-headed Antiquity gives them leave: It's pity some soaringVirtuoso, instead of Travelling into France, does not take a flight upto the Sun; and by new Observations supply the defects of its History;occasioned not by the Negligence of our Witty French Author, but by theaccursed Plagiary of some rude Hand, that in his Sickness, rifted hisTrunks, and stole his Papers, as he himself complains.[3]
Let some venturous Undertaker auspiciously attempt it then;and if neither of the two Universities, Gresham-College, norGreenwich-Observatory can furnish him with an Instrument ofConveyance; let him try his own Invention, or make use of our Author'sMachine: For our Loss is, indeed, so great, that one would think,none but the declared Enemy of Mankind, would have had the Malice, topurloyn and stiffle those rare Discoveries, which our Author made inthe Province of the Solar Philosophers; and which undoubtedly wouldhave gone far, as to the settleing our Sublunary Philosophy, which, aswell as Religion, is lamentably rent by Sects and Whimseys; and haveconvinced us, perhaps, that in our present Doubts and Perplexities, alittle more, or a little less of either, would better serve our Turns,and more content our Minds.
[1] This evidently refers to an earlier translation of the _Voyageto the Moon_, published probably in 1660. The present editor will begreatly obliged to any one who will put him on the track of a copyof this, or any other early translation from Cyrano, such as the"Satyrical Characters and handsome Descriptions, in Letters, written toseveral Persons of Quality, by Monsieur De Cyrano Bergerac. Translatedfrom the French, by a Person of Honor. London, 1658."
[2] Among the "others" who had previously "discovered" the Moon,Ariosto is the most prominent. In his _Orlando Furioso_, Astolfogoes to the moon, visits the "Valley of Lost Things," finds theremany broken resolutions, idlers' days, lovers' tears, and other suchmatters; and finally recovers Orlando's lost wits, which he brings backto the earth.
The _Satire Menippee_ (1594) gives, in its _Supplement_, "News from theRegions of the Moon."
Quevedo, the Spanish satirist and novelist (1580-1645), with whoseworks Cyrano was acquainted, also gives an account of the moon in hisSixth Vision.
In England, the Rev. John Wilkins (1614-1672), once Principalof Trinity College, Cambridge, and later Bishop of Chester, abrother-in-law of Cromwell, and one of the founders of the RoyalSociety, published in 1638 the "_Discovery of a New World_; or, aDiscourse to prove it is probable there may be another habitableworld in the Moon; with a discourse concerning _the possibility of apassage thither_"; and later, in 1640, the "_Discourse_ concerning anew Planet; tending to prove it is probable our earth is one of thePlanets." These two works are said to have done more than any others topopularize the Copernican system in England. The _Discovery of a NewWorld_ was translated into French by Jean de Montagne, and publishedat Rouen in 1655 or 1656. See Charles Nodier, _Melanges extraits d'unepetite bibliotheque_.
Finally, the most important of Cyrano's predecessors in the discoveryof the moon was Francis Godwin, M.A., D.D., Bishop of Llandaff andlater of Hereford (1562-1633). It was not till 1638, after the worthyBishop's death, and in the same year that Rev. (later Bishop) JohnWilkins' _Discovery of a New World_ was published, that there appearedhis "_Man in the Moone_; or a Discourse of a Voyage Thither, by DomingoGonsales, the Speedy Messenger." This was translated into French byJean Baudoin or Baudouin in 1648, as "L'homme dans la lune ... voyage... fait par Dominique Gonzales, aventurier espagnol," and was wellknown to Cyrano, as we shall see.
In saying that "the sun owes its discovery wholly to our author," thetranslator appears to be ignorant of a work which Cyrano certainlyknew: the _Civitas solis_ of Campanella, published in 1623 as a part ofhis _Realis Philosophiae Epilogisticae Partes IV_.
[3] Cf. the last sentence of the _Voyage to the Moon_.
(The Title-page of Lovell's translation.)
THE COMICAL HISTORY
of the
STATES and EMPIRES
of the WORLD of the MOON.
Written in French by
CYRANO BERGERAC.
And now Englished by
A. LOVELL. A.M.
Printed for Henry Rhodes, next door to the Swan-tavern,near Bride-lane in Fleet Street, 1687.
Histoire comique des états et empires de la lune. English Page 3