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We have already learned from the preface of the first book of the Essais how Florio was 'sea-tosst, weather-beaten, 'ship-wrackt, 'almost drowned, when exerting himself to capture the whale Montaigne and drag him through 'the rocke-rough Ocean' with the assistance of his colleague Diodati, whom he compares to 'a guide-fish. Hamlet calls Polonius a fish-monger.
Sunt, quos curriculo pulverem Olympicum, and if we take into consideration that Juror says in the same scene: And when thy swelling vents amain, Then Pisces be thy sporting chamberlain, it is not asserting too much that these are manifest hits at Florio, who, to please his Maecenas, tries with Dr. Diodati, his 'guide-fish' to capture the 'whale' in the 'rocke rough ocean.
The grateful Florio calls this worthy colleague, 'Diodati as in name, so indeed God's gift to me, and a 'guide-fish' who in this 'rockie-rough ocean' helped him to capture the 'Whale' that is, Montaigne. He also compares him to a 'bonus genius sent to me, as the good angel to Raimond in "Tasso," for my assistant to combat this great Argante.
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