Unit 1 · poem · alexandrin · 17 lines
French
Source lines 1-4
Après que de son corps son âme fut sortie,
Et que sa chaleur fut tout entière amortie,
Monsieur se résolut, avant que l'inhumer,
De faire ouvrir son corps et le faire embaumer ;
English
No translation for source lines 1-4.
Source lines 5-17
Et nous ayant enjoint d'en faire l'ouverture,
La vérité parut de nostre conjecture :
Les costéz du thorax, au dedans retirez,
Retenoient ses poulmons un petit trop serréz,
Qui rencontrans encor ceste chaleur esteinte,
Peurent de son respirer aider à la contrainte.
Mais son cœur, ferme et sain, point gros ny trop petit,
Fit que l'âme plustot de son corps ne partit.
On ne trouva partie au bas ventre offensée,
Ny foye, ny boyaux, ny ratte interressée.
L'estomach, la vessie, ensemble l'amarry,
Et tout le mésentère assez beau, rien pourry.
Il n'y eut que les reins qui, selon leur office.....
English · verified range
Verified range
After her soul had departed from her body,
And her heat was entirely spent,
Monsieur resolved, before interring her,
To have her body opened and to have it embalmed;
And having enjoined us to make the opening,
The truth of our conjecture appeared:
The sides of the thorax, retracted inward,
Held her lungs a little too tightly,
Which, still encountering this extinguished heat,
May have aided in the constraint of her breathing.
But her heart, firm and sound, neither large nor too small,
Caused the soul not to depart her body sooner.
No injured part was found in the lower belly,
Nor liver, nor bowels, nor spleen affected.
The stomach, the bladder, together with the womb,
And all the mesentery quite beautiful, nothing rotten.
There were only the kidneys which, according to their office.....