6. "Their language is very difficult, since it hath no affinity with any other I ever heard, and consists not so much of words and letters, as tunes and strange sounds, which no letters can express; for there are few words but signify several things.... Yea, many words consist of tunes only without words, by occasion whereof I find a language may be framed, and easily learned, as copious as any other in the world, only of tunes, which is an experiment worth searching after."
This pamphlet was published in England in 1638 and translated into French in 1648.
Tom d'Urfey's Wonders in the Sun or the Kingdom of the Birds (London, 1706) is obviously inspired by Cyrano's Voyages (without acknowledgment). There are characters taken from Cyrano: the main situation is the trial before the court of birds and whole slices of the prose dialogues are simply a translation. Characters are Domingo Gonzales and Diego his man; the Daemon of Socrates; all with leading parts; and King Dove. The other bird-characters are ingenious and Tom's own. Here is an extract from Act I, scene 1:
Daemon: Two thousand Years and upwards since the Death of that Philosopher I've carefully Employ'd in Art's Improvement, I first in Thebes Taught wise Epaminondas, then turning over to the Roman side Espous'd the Party of the younger Cato.
Gonzales: The world admir'd your fame, the Learned Cardan still doted on your Tenets.
Daemon: He had reason. I Taught him many things. Trithmethius too, Cæzar, La Brosse and the occult Agrippa were all my Pupils, beside a new Cabal of Wise young Men, vulgarly called the Rosa-crucian Knights, those were, should I dilate their Virtues fully, the very Keys of the locks of Nature.
Gonzales: Gossendus too in France, and Campanella were under your instruction.
That is almost word for word from the Moon. In the same scene occurs this:
Gonzales: Well, and pray, Sir, your Philosophers, what must they feed on?
Daemon: Steams, luscious Fumes, rich edifying Smoak.