Protestant Exiles from France/Book First - Chapter 13 - Section V
V. John Bulteel, Gentleman.
The date of the death of John Bulteel, M.A., being 1669 (or 1670, n.s.), I venture to chronicle “John Bulteel, gentleman,” as John, son of the pasteur John Bulteel, of Canterbury, who on 26th August 1627 was baptized in that archi-episcopal city within the undercroft of its cathedral as Jean, fils de Monsr. Jean Bulteel, ministre en ceste église et Marie Gabri sa femme. We may suppose that this well-born and well-educated gentleman came to London as a votary of literature, and undertook to execute translations from French and from Italian, as well as from Latin and Greek. He was alive in 1683, and was married to a daughter of Richard Woodward, Esq. This appears from the following dedicatory epistle:—
“To the truly virtuous Mrs. Esther Woodward, the relict of Richard Woodward, Esquire, Deceased.
“Madam, — There being but two sorts of persons, fit for the patronage of such a book, the Great and the Good — as I have for many reasons declined the first, so I know my choice of the second to be so judicious by dedicating this to yourself, that I dare adventure to affix my name to it, which I have not done to many others. I will not let loose my pen to launch into your just praise, lest it be look’d upon as interest or flattery; besides — virtue and goodness ever carry their own commendations as their own reward with them.
“This piece is one of the noblest Reliques of Antiquity that ever was transferr’d to us. A learned author calls it a heaven full of asterismes — a body full of eyes — in which, if there be any defect, it is the too many beauties crowded together, and like a banquet of sweetmeats, must be tasted at intervals, lest it prove over-lushious and cloy, and one thing impare the relish of the other, though each be exquisite in its self.
“This, though but paper, may perpetuate your name beyond the duration of monuments of marble or porphiry, for the Apopthegmes of the Ancients shall last till time shall be no more, and may your memory live so too.
“All I shall add is, Madam, to desire you would forgive the weaknesses I maybe guilty of in this or any other thing relating to yourself, and that you would believe it a great truth (which I expose to the world’s contradiction, if otherwise) that I am unfeignedly and without any mental reservation, Madam, your most obedient Son and most humble Servant,
“York Garden, this 20th of January 1683.”
The volume heralded in this dedication was entitled:— “The Apophthegmes of the Ancients, taken out of Plutarch, Diogenes-Laertius, Elian, Atheneus, Stobeus, Macrobius, and others. Collected into one volume for the benefit and pleasure of the ingenious. London, Printed for William Cademan, at the Pope’s Head, in the New Exchange in the Strand, 1683.”
In 1664 he had published “A Relation of the State of the Court of Rome made in the year 1661, at the Council of Pregadi, by the most excellent the Lord Angelo Corraro, Ambassadour from the most serene Republique of Venice to Pope Alexander II. — translated out of Italian, by J. B., Gent.” This translation was printed as the Second Part of a Volume on the City of Rome, published in 1664. But in 1668 it was re-printed as a separate work, and dedicated to Mr. Matthias Van Benningen. I cannot trace him further than 1683, in which year he brought out a folio volume, translated from the French, namely, “A General Chronological History of France before the reign of King Pharamond, and ending with the reign of King Henry IV. By the Sieur de Mezeray, Historiographer of France. Translated by John Bulteel, Gent. London, Printed by T. N. for Thomas Basset. 1683.”
The “Apophthegmes,” being published in the month of January, although dated 1683, may probably bring the dates of his career down to 1684. As it is valued in the present day as a scarce book, I shall briefly describe it. He says in the preface, “An Apophthegme, called in French un bon mot, and which may be called in English a good saying (though its signification is somewhat more extensive in the original), is a pithy and short sentiment upon a subject, or a ready and sharp answer.” The volume is a collection of aphorisms and repartees, sometimes explaining the circumstances in which they were uttered. But having been taken from the Greek and Latin Classics, they introduce us not to modern society but to “the ancients.”
He further explains, “The foundation of this work is taken from Plutarch and Diogenes Laertius, &c. But I have not omitted the addition of a great many others gathered from Erasmus, and such as Lycosthenes hath reduced into chapters. ... I do not know any piece of antiquity that stood in greater need of being revised and corrected. . . . To make them the more quaint and concise, which is an essential property of an apophthegme, I have pared away all the superfluous circumstances. ... I have set down no moral reflections.”
The following are specimens of Mr. Bulteel’s “Apophthegmes”:—
P. 252. Zeno’s servant cried out while he was beating him for pilfering, I was predestinated to steal. And to be beaten too, said Zeno.
P- 330. One said to an ill reader, When you read you sing, and when you sing you sing scurvily.
P. 102. The Emperor Adrian said to some lawyers who desired that they might be allowed to plead, That they had no want of leave but of ability.
P. 320. A Roman Lord, meeting a stranger that resembled him very much, asked him if his mother had never been in Rome. No, replyed he. but my father hath been often there.
P. 1. Cyrus, being yet a child, told Astyages, who would persuade him to drink wine, that he feared it was poison, having observed that in Astyages himself it occasioned reelings and other strange disorders.
P. 316. Diogenes was blamed for throwing some wine out of his glass. I had rather throw that down, said he, than that that should throw me down.
P. 72. One that was very superstitious being amazed that a mouse had gnawed his stocking, it would have been a wonder indeed, said Cato, if the stocking should have eat the mouse.
P. 170. The prognosticators making it a great prodigy that a serpent had wound itself round the key of Leotichides’ door, No, said he, but it would be one, should the key wind itself about the serpent.