translating this sentence, lies in the idiomatic phrase, "qu'il s'y donnoit du bon temps." Cotton finding a parallel idiom in English, has translated the passage with becoming ease and spirit: "As it happened to one Gallio, who having been sent an exile to the isle of Lesbos, news was not long after brought to Rome, that he there lived as merry as the day was long; and that what had been enjoined him for a penance, turned out to his greatest pleasure and satisfaction." Thus, in another passage of the same author, (Essais, 1. I. c. 29.)
"Si j'eusse eté chef de part, j'eusse prins autre voye plus naturelle." Had I rul'd the roast, I should have taken another and more natural course." So likewise, (Ess. l. I. c. 25.) "Mais d'y enfoncer plus avant, et de m'étre rongé les ongles à"l'etude
