see it considering that the lesser part of me which is the Body would abide in thee and the best to wit that which is the Soul and by which our Name continues blessed amongst Men would be degenerate and abastardized This I do not speak out of any distrust that I have of thy Vertue which I have heretofore already tried but to encourage thee yet more earnestly to proceed from good to better And that which I now write unto thee is not so much that thou shouldest live in this vertuous Course as that thou shouldest rejoice in so living and having lived and cheer up thy self with the like Resolution in time to come To the Prosecution and Accomplishment of which Enterprise and generous Undertaking thou mayest easily remember how that I have spared nothing but have so helped thee as if I had had no other Treasure in this World but to see thee once in my Life compleatly well bred and accomplished as well in Vertue Honesty and Valour as in all liberal Knowledg and Civility and so to leave thee after my Death as a Mirror representing the Person of me thy Father and if not so excellent and such indeed as I do wish thee yet such in Desire But although my deceased Father of happy Memory Grangousier had bent his best Endeavours to make me profit in all Perfection and Political Knowledg and that my Labour and Study was fully correspondent to yea went beyond his Desire nevertheless as thou mayest well understand the time then was not so proper and fit for Learning as it is at present neither had I plenty of such good Masters as thou hast had for that time was darksom obscured with Clouds of Ignorance and savouring a little of the Infelicity and Calamity of the Gothes who had where-ever they set footing destroyed all good Literature which in my Age hath by the Divine Goodness been restored unto its former Light and Dignity and that with such Amendment and Increase of Knowledg that now hardly should I be admitted unto the first Form of the little Grammar School-Boys I say I who in my youthful days was and that justly reputed the most Learned of that Age. Which I do not speak in vain-boasting although I might lawfully do it in writing unto thee by the Authority of Marcus Tullius in his Book of Old Age and the Sentence of Plutarch in the Book intituled How a Man may praise himself without Envy but to give thee an emulous Encouragement to strive yet further Now is it that the Minds of Men are qualified with all manner of Discipline and the old Sciences revived which for many Ages were extinct Now it is that the learned Languages are to their pristine Purity restored viz. Greek without which a Man may be ashamed to account himself a Scholar Hebrew Arabick Chaldaean and Latin Priâ—â—ing likewise is now in use so elegant and so correct that better cannot be imagined although it was found out but in my time by Divine Inspiration as by a Diabolical Suggestion on the other side was the Invention of Ordnance All the World is full of knowing Men of most learned School-masters and vast Libraries and it appears to me as a Truth that neither in Plato's time nor Cicero's nor Papinian's there was ever such conveniency for Studying as we see at this Day there is Nor must any adventure henceforward to come in publick or represent himself in Company that hath not been pretty well polished in the Shop of Minerva I see Robbers Hangmen Free-booters Tapsters Ostlers and such like of the very Rubbish of the People more learned now than the Doctors and Preachers were in my time What shall I say The very Women and Children have aspired to this Praise and Celestial Manna of good Learning Yet so it is that in the Age I am now of I have been constrained to learn the Greek Tongue which I contemned not like Cato but had not the Leasure in my younger Years to attend the Study of it And I take much delight in the reading of Plutarch's Morals the pleasant Dialogues of Plato the Monuments of Pausanias and the Antiquities of Athenaeus whilst I wait the Hour wherein God my Creator shall call me and command me to depart from this Earth and transitory Pilgrimage Wherefore my Son I admonish thee to imploy thy Youth to profit as well as thou canst both in thy Studies and in Vertue Thou art at Paris where the laudable Examples of many brave Men may stir up thy Mind to gallant Actions and hast likewise for thy Tutor the Learned Epistemon who by his lively and vocal Documents may instruct thee in the Arts and Sciences I intend and will have it so that thou learn the Languages perfectly First of all the Greek as Quintilian will have it Secondly the Latin and then the Hebrew for the Holy Scripture-sake And then the Chaldee and Arabick likewise And that thou frame thy stile in Greek in imitation of Plato and for the Latin after Cicero Let there be no History which thou shalt not have ready in thy Memory and to help thee therein the Books of Cosmography will be very conducible Of the liberal Arts of Geometry Arithmetick and Musick I gave thee some taste when thou wert yet little and not above five or six Years old proceed further in them and learn the Remainder if thou canst As for Astronomy study all the Rules thereof let pass nevertheless the divining and judicial Astrology and the Art of Lullius as being nothing else but plain Cheat and Vanities As for the Civil Law of that I would have thee to know the Texts by heart and then to confer them with Philosphy Now in matter of the Knowledg of the Works of Nature I would have thee to study that exactly and that so there be no Sea River or Fountain of which thou dost not know the Fishes all the Fowls of the Air all the several kinds of Shrubs and Trees whether in Forests or Orchards All the Sorts of Herbs and Flowers that grow upon the Ground all the various Metals that are hid within the bowels of the Earth together with all the diversity of precious Stones that are to be seen in the Orient and South-parts of the World let nothing of all these be hidden from thee Then fail not most carefully to peruse the Books of the Greek Arabian and Latin Physicians not despising the Talmudists and Cabalists and by frequent Anatomies get thee the perfect Knowledg of the Microcosm which is Man And at some Hours of the Day apply thy Mind to the Study of the Holy Scriptures first in Greek the New-Testament with the Epistles of the Apostles and then the Old-Testament in Hebrew In brief Let me see thee an Abyss and bottomless-Pit of Knowledg for from henceforward as thou growest great and becomest a Man thou must part from this Tranquillity and Rest of Study thou must learn Chivalry Warfare and the Exercises of the Field the
was not King of France when speaking of some superstitious Preachers one of whom had called him Heretic he adds I wonder that your King should suffer them in their Sermons to publish such Scandalous Doctrin in his Dominions Then Fryar-Ihon says to the Pilgrims that while they thus are upon their Pilgrimage the Monks will have a Fling at their Wives After that Grangousier bids them not be so ready to undertake those idle and unprofitable journyes but go home and live as St. Paul directs them and then God will guard them from Evils which they think to avoid by Pilgrimages What has been observed puts it beyond all doubt that our jesting Author was indeed in Earnest when he said that he mystically treated of the most high Sacraments and dreadful secrets in what concerns our Religion I know that immediately after this he passes off with a Banter what he had assur'd very seriously but this was an admirable peice of Prudence and who ever will narrowly examin his writings will find that this Vertue is inseparably joyned with his wit so that his Enemies never could have any advantage over him But not to comment upon several other Places in his first Book that the ingenious may have the pleasure of unriddling the rest of it themselves I will only add that his manner of ending it is a Master peice surpassing the artful evasion which as I have now observed is in its Introduction It is an Enigma as indeed is the whole Work I could only have wished that it had been proper to have put it into a more modish Dress for then doubtless it would have more generally have pleased But I suppose that the Gentleman who revised this Translation thought it not fit to give the Graces of our Modern Enigmas to the Translation of a prophetical Riddle in the style of Merlin Gargantua piously fetches a very deep sigh when he has heard it read and says that he perceives by it that it is not now only that People called to the Faith of the Gospel are persecuted but happy is the Man that shall not be scandalized but shall always continue to the end in aiming at the Mark which God by his dear Son has set before us c. Upon this the Monk asks him what he thought was signified by the Riddle What says Gargantua the Decrease and Propagation of the Divine Truth That is not my Exposition says the Monk it is the style of the Prophet Merlin make as many grave Allegories and Tropes as you will I can conceive no other meaning in it but a description of a Set at Tennis in dark and obscure Terms By this Riddle which he expounds he cunningly seems to insinuate that all the rest of his Book which he has not explained wholly consists of trifles and what is most remarkable is that he illustrates the Truths which he had concealed by the very Passage wherewith he pretends to make them pass for Fables and thus blinds with too much light those Enemies of Truth who would not have failed to have burned him alive in that persecuting Age had he had less Wit and Prudence than they shewed Ignorance and Malice I need not enlarge much on the other Books by reason of the Discoveries made in the first that relate to them The first Chapter of the second gives us Pantagruel's Pedigree from the Giants It has been observed by a Learned Man some Years ago that the word Giant which the Interpreters of the Scripture have set in their Versions stands there for another that means no more then Prince in the Hebrew so perhaps our Author was the more ready to make his Princes Giants tho as I have said his chief design was tacitly to censure in this Iohn d' Albret and such others as like one in Britany that took for his Motto Antequam Abraham esset sum were too proud of an uncertain empty Name His description of the Original of Giants and the story of Hurtali's bestriding the Ark is to mock those in the Thalmud and other Legends of the Rabbins for he tells us that when this happened the Calends were found in the Greek Almanacs and all know that ad Graecas Calendas is as much as to say Never for the Greeks never reckoned by Calends Yet what he tells us of the Earth's Fertility in Medlars after it had been embrued with the Blood of the Just may be Allegorical And those who by feeding on that fair large delicious Fruit became Monstrous may be the converts of that Age who by the Popish World were looked upon as Monsters The Blood of Martyrs which was profusedly spilt in that Age has always been thought Prolific even to a Proverb and the word Mesles in French and Medlars in English equally import Medling thus in French Il se Mesle de nos affaires he medles with our Business so the Medlars may be those who busied themselves most about the Reformation The Great Drought at the Birth of Pantagruel is that almost universal cry of the Layty for the Restitution of the Cup in the Sacrament at the time that Anthony de Bourbon Duke of Vandosme was married to the Heiress of Navarre which was in Octob. 1548 the Council of Trent then sitting For thence we must date his Birth since by that match he afterwards gain'd the Title of King besides Bearn Bigorre Albret and several other Territories and we are told Book 3. Chap. 48. that Pantagruel at the very first Minute of his Birth was no less tall than the Herb Pantagruelion which unquestionably is Hemp and a little before that 't is said that its height is commonly of five or six foot The Death of Queen Margarite his Mother in Law that soon follow'd made our Author say that when Pantagruel was born Gargantua was much perplexed seeing his Wife Dead at which he made many Lamentations Perhaps this also alludes to the Birth of King Edward the Sixth which caus'd the Death of his Mother Queen Iane Seymour King Henry the Eighth is said to have comforted himself with saying that he could get another Wife but was not sure to get another Son Thus here we find Gargantua much griev'd and joyful by fits like Talboy in the Play but at last comforting himself with the thoughts of his Wife's Happiness and his own in having a Son and saying that he must now cast about how to get another Wife and will stay at home and rock his Son In the sixth Chapter we find Pantagruel discoursing with a Limosin who affected to speak in learned Phrase Rabelais had in the foregoing Chapter satiris'd many Persons and given a hint of some abuses in the Universities of France in this he mocks some of the Writers of that Age who to appear learned wholly fill'd their Works with Latin Words to which they gave a French Inflection But this Pedantic Iargon was more particularly affected by one Helisaine of Limoges who as Boileau says of Ronsard en Francois parlant
Greek et Latin speaking Greek and Latin in French thought to have refin'd his Mother Tongue So Rabelais to prevent the spreading of that Contagion has not only brought that Limousin Author on his Pantagruelian Stage but wrote a Letter in Verse all in that Style in the name of the Limousin Scholar printed at the end of the Pantagruelian Prognostication Pasquier who liv'd at that time has made the like Observation on that Chapter when in his second Book of Letters p. 53. he says pour l'ornement de nostre langue et nous aider mesmes du Grec et du Latin non pour les escorcher ineptement comme fit sur nostre jeune age Helisaine dont nostre gentil Rabelais s'est mocqué fort a propos en la personne de l'escolier Limosin qu'il introduct parlanâ— a Pantagruel en un language escorche Latin The 7th Chapter wherein he gives a Catalogue of the Books in St. Victor's Library is admirable and would require a large Comment it being a Satyr against many Writers and great Affairs in that Age as well as against those who either make Collections of bad Books or seek no others in Libraries but I have not leasure to read over a great number of Books that ought to be consulted for such a Task The Cause which was pleaded before Pantagruel by the Lords Suck-fizle and Kiss-Breech seems to be a Mock of the famous Tryal concerning two Dutchies four Counties two Vi-counties and many Baronies and Lordships to which Loyse de Savoye the Mother of Francis the first laid Claim Charles de Bourbon Constable of France was possest of them but because he had refus'd to marry her she made use of some Titles which she had to them to perplex him and though she could not even with the King her Son's Favour cast the Constable yet they were sequestred into the King's Hands and the final determination put off Pasquier in his Recherches observes that when Guillaume Poyet afterwards Chancellor and Francois de Monthelon afterwards Lord-Keeper then the two most famous Councellors of the Age pleaded the Cause the first for Plantiff the other for Defendant They armed themselves with a pedantic Iuris prudence borrowed from a parcel of Italian School Boys whom some call Doctors at Laws true Hatchers of Law Suits such was the Rhetoric of that Time and as it is easie to stray in a thick Wood so with a confused heap of various Quotations instead of explaining the Cause they perplexed it and filled it with darkness Upon this by the united Voice of the People the Name of the Plantiff was owned to contain the Truth of the Case that is Loyse de Savoye Loy se desavoye The Law goes astray which is perhaps the happiest Anagram thaâ— eâ—er was fot 't is made without changing the Order of the Letters and only by dividing the Words otherwise than they are in the Name The 18 19 and 20th Chapters treat of a great Scholar of England who came to argue by Signs with Pantagruel and was overcome by Panurge I do not well know on whom to fix the Character of Thaumast that Scholar whose Name may not only signifie an Admirer an admirable Person or one of those School-men who follow the Doctrin of Thomas Aquinas in opposition to that of Scotus And I find as little Reason to think that any would have come to confer with Anthony de Bourbon of Geomancy Philosophy and the Cabalistic Art Indeed Sir Thomas Moore went Ambassador to Francis the First and Erasmus who lived some time in England also came to Paris but I cannot think that either may pass for the Thaumast of Rabelais Perhaps he hath made him an English Man merely on purpose to disguise the Story and I would have had some thoughts of Henricus Cornelius Agrippa who came to France and died there but I will prove when I examin the Third Book that he has brought him on the Stage by the Name of Her-trippa So 't is not impossible but that he may have meant Hieronimus Cardan of Milan who flourish'd in that Age and was another dark Cabalistic Author The first has said Occult. Philos. l. 1. c. 6. That he knew how to communicate his Thoughts by the species of Sight in a magical Way as Pythagoras was said to do by writing any thing in the Body of the Moon so as it should be legible to another at a vast distance and he pretends to tell us the method of it in his Book De vanitate Scientiarum Cardan also has writ concerning private Ways of imparting our Thoughts Subâ—ilit l. 17. and De Variet Rerum lib. 12. but these ways of signifying our Thoughts by Gestures called by the Learned Bishop Wilkins Semaeology are almost of infinite Variety according as the several Fancies of Men shall impose Significations upon such Signs as are capable of sufficient difference And the Venerable Bede has made a Book only of that commonly stiled Arthrologia or Dactylologia which he calls Lib. de loquelâ per gestum digitorum sive de indigitatione So that perhaps our Author made his Thaumast an English Man not to reflect on Beda but because that Learned Father is the most Ancient and Famous Author that has written a Book on that Subject I have Read of a public Debate much like that of Thaumast and Panurge and as probable said to have been held at Geneva The Agressor lifted up his Arm and closed three of his Fingers and his Thumb and pointed with the remaining Finger at his Opponent who immediately pointed at him again with two Then the other shewed him two Fingers and one Thumb whereupon his Antagonist shook his closed Fist at him Upon this the Aggressor showed him an Apple and the other looking into his Pocket found a bit of Bread and in a scornful way let him see it which made him that began the Dispute yield himself vanquished Now when the Conqueror was desired to relate what their Signs signified He with whom I disputed said he threatned first to put out one of my Eyes and I gave him to understand that I would put out both his Then he threatned to tear both mine and take off my Nose upon which I shewed him my Fist to let him know that I would knock him down And as he perceived that I was angry he offered me an Apple to pacifie me as they do Children but I showed him that I scorn'd his Present and that I had Bread which was fitter for a Man After all Montluc who is our Panurge may have had some Dispute about the Signs of the true Religion or the two Sacraments of the Protestants and the seven of the Romans they being properly called Signs and such a thing not being recorded by Historians like many others that relate to this Work it may not be possible to discover it The Dipsodes that had besieged the City of the Amaurots are the Flemings and other Subjects of the Emperor Charles the
wonder that none ever gave an Account of any of them in the space of above One hundred and Forty Years The Sickness of Pantagruel Chapter 33. is his disgust upon this disappointment at Bapaume or some real sickness that seiz'd him There the Author concludes his second Book that was published sometime after the First which we may perceive by what he tells us of the Monks and their bigotted Cullies who had already try'd to find something in it that might render him obnoxious to the Law which caused him to be somewhat more reserved in matters of Religion in that and the following than he was afterwards in the fourth and fifth Yet we find a Prayer in the twenty ninth Chapter which shews that his Pantagruel Anthony de Bourbon was for the Protestant Religion but did not openly profess it Accordingly Historians grant that he was a Calvinist even long before Rabelais dyed And tho for his Interest as he thought he afterwards sided with the French-Court against the Protestant Party yet after he had been mortally wounded at the Siege of Roan he complained of being deceived and ordered one of his Servants who was a Protestant to bring a Minister to him but the other not being able to do it in those persecuting Times he commanded him to pray by him after the manner of the Reformed Church which the other did to that unfortunate King's satisfaction Cardinal de Bourbon his Brother being then present Panurge is the chief actor in the third act of our Pantagruelian Play we find him there much perplexed with uncertainties his mind fluctuating between the desire of entring into a matrimonial Engagement and the fear of having occasion to repent it To be eased of his doubt he consults several Persons all famous for some particular skill in removing Anxieties of mind and there our Learned and Ingenious Satyrist displays his knowledge and his fancy to admiration as has been observed by the Learned Van Dale in the passage which I have given you out of his Book de Oraculis after the Account of our Author's Life But before that we find Pantagruel in the first Chapter transporting a Colony of Vtopians into Dipsodie for which Rabelais gives a very good Reason and proves himself a Master at Politics as well as at other Things To explain that passage we must know that the Duke of Vendosme garrison'd out of Picrady some of the Places that had been taken in Artois fixing also there some of his Vassals and Tenants who were very numerous there abouts and as he was born among them viz. at La Fere in 1518 he had a particular love for them In the second Chapter Panurge is made Laird of salmygondin in Dipsodie and wasteth his Revenue before it comes in I can apply this to nothing but the gift of some Benefice to Montluc by the Duke of Vendosme or the Queen of Navarre afterwards his Mother in Law which Benefice not being sufficient to supply him in his Extravagances something more considerable was bestowed on him which having set him at Ease gave him occasion to reflect on his former ill conduct and grow more thrifty So that afterwards he entertained some thoughts of Marriage and probably was married when Rabelais wrote Among those whom Panurge consults the Sybil of Panzoust is the first whose right name is difficult to be discovered The pretended Key in the French makes her a Court Lady but its Author seems never to have read Rabelais or at least not to have understood him if we may judge of it by the Names which he in spight of Reason has set against some of those in our Author Among four or five short Explanations of as many Passages in Rabelais also printed in the French one of them tells us that by the Sybil of Panzoust our Author means a Gentlewoman of that Place near Chinon who dy'd very old and always lived single tho importuned by her Friends to marry when she was young But Rabelais having in this Book very artfully made his Panurge consult Men of different Professions famous in his Time to be eased of his doubt I do not beleive that he would have begun by a Woman altogether unknown to the learned World Yet not but that he may have made choice of the Name of Panzoust to double the Character if he knew that such an Antiquated She-thing liv'd there I have indeavoured to discover who might be that Sybill but dare not positively fix that Character on any St. Therese a Spanish Nun who liv'd in that Age might come in for a share she has writ several Books and was already famous when Rabelais liv'd she had very odd notions and discover'd perhaps as much madness as sanctity I find another noted crack'd-brain Bigotte who was old at that Time and liv'd at Venice T is one whom several great Men have mentioned by the name of Virgo Venetas Guillaume Postel amongst the rest a very learned Jesuit and very famous in that Age for Philosophy calls her Mother Ioane and had such a veneration for her that he thought the Reparation of the Female Sex not yet perfected and that such a glorious Work was reserved for her but Florimond de Raymond excuses him in this and says that he only designed to praise her for the great services which she had done him in his Travels There is another for whom I would certainly believe the Sybil's Character made were I sure that our Author and she were Contemporaries Her name is Magdelen de la Croix she was a Nun and had so well gained the reputation of being a Saint that she was consulted as a Sybil by the greatest Kings and Princes in Europe but at last she proved a Sorceress and was burn'd If I am not mistaken Dr. Henry More has made mention of her and I have read her History among several others in a Book called Histoires Tragiques But as I am forc'd to quote those Books by memory like many others which I cannot conveniently procure I must refer the Reader to them for further satisfaction In the one and twentieth Chapter Panurge consulteth with Raminagrobis an old French Poet who was almost upon the very last moment of his Life This Poet was William Cretin Treasurer of the King's Chappel who had liv'd under Charles the VIII Lewis the XII and Francis the I. as may be seen by his Works Never was Man more celebrated by the Writers of his Age. Iohn le Maire dedicated to him his three Books of the Illustrations of France and speaks of him as of the Man to whom he owed all things Geoffroy Toré in his Champ fleury says that Cretin in his Chronicles of France had out-done Homer and Virgil. And even Maro◠inscribed to him his Epigrams Here are the four first verses of Marot to him L' homme Sotart et non Scavant Comme un Rotisseur qui lave oye La Faute d' autruy nonce avant Qu'il la cognoisse ou qui'l la voye
1536 the Cardinal of Trent who was a German came thither to press the Pope to a Council and in our Author's presence said to Cardinal Du Bellay that the Pope refused to grant a Council but that he would repent it for the Christian Princes would take away what they had given to the Church The universal Cry was for the Restitution of the Câ—p to the Layety and of Marriage to the Clergy against Indulgences Pardons c. This caused Rabelais to put out these Pithagorical Symhols as he calls them That while some of the great ones privately and the Protestants publickly were indeavouring a thorough-Reformation he might insinuate a Contempt of the Church of Rome's Fopperies châ—efly in the Clergy of France and those that were at the Council of Trent as also in such of the Layety as had wit enough to find out his meaning And this is what he means in the Prologue to his 3. Book by the comical Account which he gives of Diogenes who seeing the Inhabitants of Corinth all very busy in their preparations for the War and himself not invited to help them roul'd and tossed about his Tub that he might not be said to be Idle For says Rabelais I held it not a little disgraceful to be only an Idle Spectator of so many valorous eloquent and warlike Persons who in the View and Sight of all Europe act this Notable Interlude or Tragicomedy By the word Eloquent we may easily Judge that this notable Interlude is the Council then sitting He knew that in 1534 Calvin having dedicated his Institution to Francis the I. the Bigots about him cunningly perswaded that King not to read that excellent Work nor its incomparable Preface tho he was otherwise not very religious having made a League with the Turks and joyned his Fleet to that of Barbarossa as also charg'd his Children in 1535 on pain of incurring his Curse to revenge his wrongs on Charles the V. whom he used to call Satan's eldest Son So partly that his Book might not have the same fate he made it mysterious and indeed that King had it read to him inspight of those who told him it was heretical But he was so imbroyl'd in Wars that perhaps he dar'd not favour the Reform'd for fear of being served by the Pope like the King of Navarre However even his Mother Loyse de Savoye what Divotion soever she shew'd to Popish Fopperies seems to have had but little Respect for them For in her Journal writ with her own hand and kept still in the Chambredes Comptes at Paris are found these words concerning St. Francis de Paule Frere Francois de Paule fuâ—parmoy canonisé a tout le moins jenpayay la Taxe that is Fryar-John de Paule was sainted by me at least I paid the Fees For making him a Saint Yet our Author wrote not so darkly but that the Ingenious of that Age could know his meaning for the very antidoted Conundrums which are the 2. Chapter of his first Book show that he treated of Religion as he had said in the Prologue before it The first Stanza may perhaps be only designed to make the rest pass for a Banter but the second mentions the Pope and Calvin plainly the first whose Slipper 't is more meritorious to kiss than to gain Pardons and the other from the depth issued were they fish for Roaches that is the Lake at Geneva who said Sirs for God's sake let us forbear doing this in the French Qui dit Messieurs pour Dieu nous en gardons I have not the leasure to examin now the other Stanzaes though I can explain some of them But to show that Rabelais was understood when he writ we need but read the Verses printed in the French before his second Book they are by Hugues Salel a Man of great Wit and Learning who as I have said had translated Homer's Iliads In them he encourages the Author to write on and tells him that under a pleasing Foundation he had so well describ'd useful Matters that if he was not rewarded here below he should be rewarded in Heaven Gross Superstition proceeds from Ignorance so next to the First he exposes the Latter but I need not come to particulars I may say that he has satirised all sorts of Vice and consequently all sorts of Men we find them all promiscuously on his Scene as in Bay's grand Dance in the Rehearsal Kings Cardinals Ladies Aldermen Soldiers c. He saw that Vice was not to be conquer'd in a Declamatory War and that the angry railing Lectures of some well-meaning Men were seldom as effectual to make it give Ground as the gay yet pointed Ralleries of those who seem unconcern'd the latter convincing us effectually while the others with their passionate Invectives perswade â—s of nothing but that they are too angry to direct others This gay way of moralizing has also nothing of the dry mortifying method of those Philosophers who striving to demonstrate their Principles by Causes and a long Series of Arguments only rack the mind but its Art and delicacy is not perceived by every Reader Consequently many People will not easily find out the inward Beauties of the Works of Rabelais But he did not intend that every one should perceive them tho every one may be extreamly diverted by the outward and obvious Wit and Humour We may say of those hidden graces what a Learned Man says of those in Horace's Satires Quae cum animae plebeiae percurrunt nec venustatem vident nec necessitatem argumenti intelligunt Eruditi praeter incredibilem leporem ad principium quo nititur recurrunt The figure Oximorum by which things at first appear foolish tho they are sharp and witty is such a Master pice in Rhetoric as can be perceived by none but the Skillfull Painting has its Grotesque and bold Touches which seem irregular to the Vulgar only pleased with their odness while Masters thro the antic Features and rough Strokes discover an exact Proportion a Softness and a Boldness together which charm them to an unspeakable degree So in artful Jests and Ironies in that lusus animi and judicious extravagance what seems mean and absurd is most in sight and strikes the Vulgar but better Judgments under that course outside discover exquisite Wit just and sublime Thoughts vast Learning and the most profound Reasonings of Philosophy Our Author's first Prologue has lead me to this Observation by that which he makes concerning Socrates Sorbiere who was a Man not much given to praise the Living and much less the Dead applys this to Rabelais owning that his Satire is the most learned and universal that ever was writ and that it also so powerfully inclines our Minds to Mirth that almost all those whom he had known that had been much conversant with it had gain'd by it's means a Method of thinking agreably on the most profound and melancholic Matters Thus it teaches us to bear Adversities gallantly and to make
the Ruins of Time in a Kingdom where 't is not easie to find many Books and Persons that can inform us of that Author I could get together what follows principally if we consider how little is to be found in the French late Editions of his Works FRANCIS RABELAIS was born about the Year 1483 at Chinon a very ancient little Town scituate near the Place where the River Vienne loses it self into the Loire in the Province of Touraine in France His Father Thomas Rabelais was an Apothecary of that Town and possessed an Estate called la Douïniere near which Place having first sent his Son Francis to be Educated by the Monks of the Abbey of Sevillé and finding that he did not improve he removed him to the Vniversity of Anger 's where he studied sometime at a Convent called la Baumette but without any considerable Success There he became acquainted with Messieurs Du Bellay one of whom was afterwards Cardinal And 't is said that Rabelais having committed some Misdemeanor was there very severely used A Famous Author writes That he was bred up in a Convent of Franciscan Friars in Poictou and was received into their Order Which Convent can be no other than that of Fontenay le Comte in the said Province where he proved a great Proficient in Learning in so much that of the Friars some envied him some through Ignorance thought him a Conjurer and in short all hated and misused him because he studied Greek the Beauties of which Tongue they could not relish its Novelty making them esteem it not only Barbarous but Antichristian This we partly observe by a Letter which Budaeus the most learned Man of his Age in that Tongue writ to a Friend of Rabelais wherein he highly Praises him particularly for his Excellent Knowledge in that Tongue and exclaims against the Stupidity and Ingratitude of those Friars Such a Misfortune befel Erasmus as also the Learned Rabanus Maurus Magnentius Abbot of Fulda and Aâ—chbishop of Ments For having Composed some Excellent Poems in Verse they only served to expose him to the Hatred of his Monks who accused him of applying himself too much to Spiritual Things and too little to the Encrease of the Temporal to the Loss as they thought of the Monastery So that abouâ— the Year 842 he was forced to retire near Lewis King of Germany his Protector where his Monks who had soon found their Error and their Loss in the Absence of so esteemable an Abbot came to beg his Pardon and prayed him to resume the Administration of the Abbey which however he resolutely declin'd Thus Rabelais hating the Ignorance and Baseness of the Cordeliers was desirous enough to leave them being but too much prompted to it by several Persons of Eminent Quality who were extreamly delighted with his Learning and facecious Conversation A Monk relates That he was put in Pace that is between four Walls with Bread and Water in the said Convent for some unlucky Action and was redeemed out of it by the Learned Andrew Tiraqueau then Lieutenant-General that is Chief Iudge of the Baylywick of Fontenay le Comâ—e and by Tradition 't is said in that Town That on a Day when the Country People used to resort to the Convent's Church to address their Prayers and pay their Offerings to the Image of St. Francis which stood in a Place somewhat dark near the Porch Rabelais to Ridicule their Superstition privately removed the Saint's Image and placed himself in its room having first disguised himself But at last too much pleased with the awkward Worship which was payed him he could not forbear Laughing and made some Motion which being observed by his gaping staring Worshippers they cryed out Miracle My good Lord St. Francis moves Vpon which an Old crafty Knave of a Friar who knew Stone and the Virtue of St. Francis too well to expect this should be true drawing near scar'd our Sham-Saint out of his Hole And having caused him to be seized the rest of the Fraternity with their knotty Cords on his bare Back soon made him know he was not made of Stone and wish he had been as hard as the Image or Senceless as was the Saint nay turned into the very Image of which he lately was the Representation At last by the Intercession of Friends of which Geoffroy d' Estissac Bishop of Maillezais is said to have been one be obtained Pope Clement VII's Permission to leave the beggarly Fellowship of St. Francis for the Wealthy and more easie Order of St. Bennet and was entertained in that Bishop's Chapter that is the Abbey of Maillezais But his Mercurial Temper prevailing after he had lived sometime there he also left it and laying down the regular Habit to take that which is worn by secular Priests he rambled up and down a while till at last he fixed at Montpellier took all his Degrees as a Physician in that Vniversity and practis'd Physic with Reputation And by his Epistle before the Translation of the Aphorisms of Hippocrates and some Works of Galen which he Published and Dedicated to the Bishop of Maillezais in 1532 he tells him that he publicly read Physic in that Vniversity to a Numerous Auditory 'T is vulgarly said that Rabelais having Published some Physical Tract which did not sell upon the disappointed Book-seller's Complaint to him told him that since the World did not know how to value a good Book they would undoubtedly like a bad one and that accordingly he would write something that would make him large amends upon which he Composed his Gargantua and Pantagruel by which the Book-seller got an Estate But either this is an Error or Rabelais must have been more imposed on them our Sir Walter Rauleigh was by his selfish Stationer since the above-mentioned Translation which was Printed by the Famous Gryphius of Lyons at first in 1532. was reprinted many times since particularly in 1543. of which Date I have an an Edition of it which was undoubtedly before Rabelais began to write his Gargantua and none ever mentioned any other Tract of Physic by him and also when he speaks of his Annotations on the Aphorisms of Hippocrates he says that Gryphius importuned him very much to consent that they might be printed We do not know how he came to leave Montpellier tho probably he was sent by its Vniversity to sollicit for them at Court and then was invited to stay at Paris of which John Du Bellay his Friend afterwards Cardinal was not only Bishop but Governour at least 't is certain he attended him in his Embassy to Pope Paul the III. though I believe that the chief occasion of his going to Rome was to put a stop to the Ecclesiastical Censures fulminated against hâ—â— for leaving his Convent and 't is thought the Bishop of Maillezais abetted that desertion and incouraged him in his Studies at Montpellier which perhaps made Rabelais afterwards dedicate to him and own then that he owed all things to him
But if he said so many great Men have said much the same Thus Augustus near his Death ask'd his Friends Whether he had not very well Acted the Farce of Life And Demonax one of the best Philosophers when he saw that he could not by reason of his great Age live any longer without being a Burthen to others as well as to himself said to those that were near him what the Herald used to say when the public Games were ended You may with-draw the Show is over and refusing to Eat kept his usual Gayety to the â—ast and set himself at Ease I wave many other Stories concerning Rabelais which seem as Inconsistent and Fabulous as the Legends of Symeon the Metaphrast St. Xavier's Miracles or the Traditions of the Monks our witty Satyrist's irreconcileable Enemies We ought not easily to believe that â—e who even in the most Licentious Places of his Merry Composures is thought by the Iudicious to have generally a design to expose Villany and in the Places that are Graver as also in his Letters displays all the Moderation and Iudgment of a good Man we ought not I say to believe that such a Man in his seventieth Year can have abandoned himself to those Excesses being Curate of a large Parish near Paris Prebend of St. Maur des Fossez in that City and honour'd and lov'd by many Persons equally eminent for Vertue Learning and Quality 'T was by a Person who with those three advantages was also a great States-Man and a very good Latin Poet I mean John Cardinal Du Bellay Bishop of Paris who knew Rabelais from his Youth that he was taken from the Profession of Physic to be employed by that Prelate in his most Secret Negotiations 'T was he that knew him best yet he thought him not unworthy of being one of the Prebends of a Famous Chapter in a Metropolis and Curate of Meudon in his Diocess 'T was doubtless in that pleasant Retreat that he composed his Gargantua and Pantagruel tho' some say 't was at that House call'd Douiniere already mention'd and that the Neighbouring Abbey of Sevillé whose Monks liv'd not then according to the Austerity of their Rule is partly the Subject of iâ— which causes him They say to make so often mention of the Monks the Staff of the Cross and the Vine-yard of Sevillé as also of Basché Lerné Panzoust c. which are Places near that Abbey The Freedom which Rabelais has used in that Work could not but raise it many Enemies Which caused him to give an Account in his Dedicatory Epistle to Odet Cardinal of Chastillon his Friend of the Motive that induc'd him to Write it There he tells him that though his Lordship knew how much he was daily Importun'd to continue it by several great Persons who alledg'd that many who languish'd through Grief or Sickness reading it had receiv'd extraordinary Ease and Comfort yet the Calumnies of a sort of uncharitable Men who said it was full of Heresies though they could not shew any there without perverting the Sence had so far Conquered his Patience that he had resolv'd to write no more on that subject But that his Lordship having told him that King Francis had found the reports of his Enemies to be unjust as well as King Henry the 〈◊〉 then Reigning who therefore had granted to that Cardinal his Priviledge and particular Protection for the Author of those Mithologies now without any fear under so Glorious and Powerful a Paâ—ronage he securely presum'd to write on And indeed 't is observable that in the Book to which that Epistle is prefix'd he has more freely than in the rest exposed the Monks Priests Pope Decretals Council of Trent then sitting c. That Epistle is Dated the 28. of January 1552. and some write that he Died in 1553. By this Epigram Printed before his last Book Rabelais seems to have been Dead before it was Published Rabelais est il mort Voicy encor un Livre Non sa meilleure part a repris ses esprits Pour nous faire present de l'un de ses escrits Qui le rend entre nous immortel fait vivre Nature quite This Satyrical Work employed him only at his spare hours for he tells us that he spent no time in Composing it but that which he usually allowed himself for Eating yet it has deserved the Commendations of the best of serious Writers and particularly of the great Thuanus whose approbation alone is a Panegyric And if we have not many other serious Tracts by its Author the private Affairs of Cardinal Du Bellay in which he was employed and his profession as a Physician and a Curate may be supposed to be the Cause of it Yet he Published a Latin Version of the Aphorisms of Hippocrates and with them some of Galen's Works which for its faithfulness and purity of Stile has been much esteemed by the best Iudges of both Nor is Vorstius who attempted the same sâ—â—d to have succeeded so well Rabelais also Wrote several French and Latin Epistles in an excellent Styâ—e to several Great and Learned Men and particularly to Cardinal de Chastillon the Bishop of Maillezais and Andrew Tiraqueau the Famous Civilian who is said Yearly to have given a Book and by one Wife a Son to the World during Thirty Years though he never drank any thing but Water in which he differed much from his Friend Rabelais Those Epistles do not only shew that he was a Man fit for Negotiations but that he had gain'd at Rome the Friendship of several Eminent Prelates He likewise writ a Book callâ—d Sciomachia and of the Feasts made at Rome in the Pallace of Cardinal Du Bellay for the Birth of the Duke of Orleans Printed at Lyons in 8 o by Sebast Gryphius 1549 And there is an Almanack for the Year 1553 Calculated by him for the Meridian of Lyons and printed there which shews that he was not only a Grammarian Poet Philosopher Physitian Civilian and Theologian but also an Astronomer Besides he was a very great Linguist being well skill'd in the French German Italian Spanish Latin Greek and Hebrew Tongues and we see in his Letters that he also understood Arabic which he had learn'd at Rome of a Bishop of Caramith Some Write that Rabelais Died at Meudon but Dom Pierre de St. Romuald says that Dr. Guy Patin Royal Professor at Paris who was a great admirer of Rabelais assur'd him that he caused himself to be brought from his Cure to Paris where he lies Buried in St Paul's Church-Yard at the foot of a great Tree still to be seen there 1660 He Died in a House in the Street call'd La Rue des Jardins in St. Paul's Parish at Paris about the Year 1553. Aged seventy Years But his Fame will never Die Estienne Pasquier Advocate General one of the most learned and judicious Writers of his Age Joachim Du Bellay Arch-deacon of Paris Nam'd to the Arch-bishopric of Bordeaux Peter Boulanger
a Fire-brand with his Mouth on the Turn-spit's Lap may be the hot words which he used to clear himself and with which he charged his Adversaries and his spitting and burning the Turkish Lord may perhaps mean the advantage which he had over them The Spectacles which afterward he wore on his Cap may signify the Caution which he was always oblig'd to take to avoid a surprise and his having a Flea in his Ear in French signifies the same His forbearing to wear any longer his Magnificent Codpiece and clothing himself in four French Ells of a course brown Russet Cloth shows that as he was a Monk he could not weare a Codpiece as was the fashon in those Days for the Laity or perhaps it denotes his affecting to imitate the simplicity of Garb which was observable in Calvinist Preachers This Subaltern Hero of the Farce now found to be the Bishop of Valence by the Circumstances and Qualifications already discovered that cannot properly belong to any other may help us to know not only Pantagruel to whom he had devoted himself but also Gargantua and Grangousier the Father and grand-Father of Pantagruel History assures us that Montluc Bishop of Valence ow'd his advancement to Marguerite Devalois Queen of Navarre and Sister to King Francis the I. She took him out of a Monastery where he was no more than a Iacobin Fryar and sent him to Rome whereby he was raised to the Rank of an Embassador which was the first step to his Advancement Thus Pantagruel should be Anthony de Bourbon Duke of Vendosme King Henry the IV.'s Father and Lewis the XIV's great grand-Father He was married to Ieanne de Albret the only Daughter of the said Queen Margaret and of Henry d' Albret King of Navarre Thus he became their Son and King of Navarre after the Death of the said Henry d' Albret whom I take to be Gargantua consequently his Father Iohn d' Albret King of Navarre excommunicated by Pope Iulius the III. and depriv'd of the best part of his Kingdom by Ferdinand King of of Arragon should be Grangousier The Verses before the third Book discover that Pantagruel is Anthony d' Bourbon afterwards King of Navarre The Author dedicates it to the Soul of the deceas'd Queen of Navarre Margaret Devalois who dy'd in Britany in the Year 1549. She had openly professed the Protestant Religion and in 1534 her Ministers of whom the most famous were Girard Rufly since Bishop of Oleron in Navarre Couraud and Berthaud preach'd publickly at Paris by her direction upon which a fierce Persecution ensued Her Learning and the Agreableness of her Temper were so extraordinary as well as her Vertue that she was stiâ—â—d The Tenth Muse and the fourth Grace she has written several Books Particularly one of Poetry called Marguerite des Marguerites and another in Prose called the Hexameron or Les Nouuelles Noâ—â—elles Of which Novels some might in this Age seem too free to be penned by a Lady but yet the reputation of her Vertue has always been very great which shows that tho in that Age both Sexes were less reserved in their writings than we are generally in this they were not more remiss in their Actions Among many Epitaphs She was honour'd with that which followâ— Quae fui exemplum coelestis nobile formâ—â— In quam tot laudes tot coâ—ere bona Margareta sub hoc tegitur Valesia saxo I nunc atque mori numina posse nega I thought fit to premise this concerning that Princess that the following Verses might be better understood Francois Rabelais A l' Esprit de la Reine de Navarre ESprit abstrait ravy ecstatie Qui frequentant les cieux ton origine As delaissé ton hoste domestic Ton corps concords qui tant se morigine A tes edits en vie peregrine Sans Sentiment et comme en apathie Voudrois point faire quelque sortie De ton manoir divin perpetuel Et ca-bas voir vne tierce partie Des faits joyeux du bon Pantagruel Francis Rabelais To the Soul of the Queen of Navarre ABstracted Spirit rapt with Extasies Soul now familiar in thy native Skies Who did'st thy flight from thy weak Mansion sake And thy kind Mate thy other self forsake Who by thy Rules himself so wisely guides And here as in a foreign World resides From sence of its fantastic Pleasures free Since thou his Soul art fled in Apathy Wouldst thou not leave a while the heav'nly plain And our World with thy Presence grace again To see this Book where a third Part I tell Of the rare Deeds of good Pantagruel This Corps concords this conjugate Body that grows so conformable to that Queen's Rules and leads the Life of a Traveller who only desires to arrive at his Journey 's end being as it were in Apathy What should it be but Henry d' Albret who had surviv'd that Queen his Consort and could love nothing after her in this World Endeavouring at the same time to weaâ— himself from its Vanities to aspire to a better according to that wise Princess's pious Admonitions nor can the good Pantagruel be any other than Anthony de Bourbon whom we have already named To this Proof I add another which admits of no Reply it is That the Language which Pantagruel owns to be that of Vtopia and his Country is the same that is spoken in the Provinces of Bearn and Gascony the first of which was yet enjoy'd by the King of Navarre Panurge having spoke to him in that Language Methinks I understand him said Pantagruel for either it is the Language of my Country of Utopia or it sounds very like it Now those who are acquainted with the different Dialects of the French Tongue need but read to find that Panurge had spoke in that of Gascony Agonou dont oussys vous desdaignez algarou c. Besides Gargantua who is King of Vtopia is said to be born in a State near the Bibarois by which the Author perhaps does not only allude to bibere drinking but to Bigorre a Province which was still possest by the King of Navarre or at least to the Vivarez which may be reckoned among the Provinces that are not far distant from that of Foix which also belonged to that King his Mother being Catherine de Foix. That in which Gargantua was born is Beusse which though it also alludes to drinking yet by the transmutation of B into V generally made by those Nations as well as by many others seems to be the ancient Name of Albret viz. Vasatâ—â— I might add That Grangousier is described as one that was well furnish'd with Hâ—ms of Bayonne Sawsages of Bigorre and Rouargue c. but none of Bolonia for he fear'd the Lombard Bâ—osone or poison'd Bit the Pope being indeed his Enemy We are told that he could not endure the Spaniards and mention is made also by Grangousier of the Wine that grows not says he in Britany but in this good Country
Sat 1. The same in another place reflecting on the deprav'd manners of his Age crys Difficile est Satyram non scribere By which he sufficiently shows what was the Object and Design of those sorts of Poems Now Rabelais chiefly pursues his Subject by jesting and exposing ridiculing and despising what he thinks deserves such an usage and 't is but seldom that he makes use of railing or sullen biting Reproofs Yet as he has done it in some places we may well say that his Work hath something of the Roman Satyr In short 't is a mixture or if I may use the Expression an Ollio of all the Merry Serious Satyrical and diverting ways of Writing that have hitherto been us'd But still Mirth is predominant in the Composition and like a pleasing Tartness gives the whole such a relish that we ever feed on it with an eager Appetite and can never be cloy'd with it 'T is Farce as our Laureat in his late curious Preface concerning that way of Writing judiciously observes of some of Ben Iohnson's but such Farce as bequeaths that Blessing pronounc'd by Horace on him that shall attempt the like sudet multum frustraque laboret Ausus idem For as 't is there observ'd the Business of Farce extends beyond Nature and Probability But then there are so few improbabilities that will appear pleasant in the Representation that it will strain the best Invention to find them out and require the nicest Judgment to manage them when they are conceiv'd Extravagant and monstruous Fancies are but sick Dreams that rather torment than divert the Mind but when Extravagancy and Improbability happen to please at all they do it to purpose because they strike our Thought with greatest Surprize Pasquier the most judicious Critick that France had in his Time was very apprehensive of this and illustrates it with two Examples that concern too much our Author and the Point in Question not to be inserted here 'T is in one of his Letters to the Poet Ronsard Il n'y a celâ—y de nous qui ne scache combien le dâ—cte Rabelais en folastrant sagement sur son Gargantua et Pantagruel gaigna de grace parmy le peuple Il se trouua peu apres deux Singes qui se persuaderent d' en pouuoir faire tout autant l' un souâ—s le nom de Leon l' Adulfy en ses propos rustiques L'autre sans nom en son Livre des Fanfreluches Mais autant y profita l'un que l'autre s' estant la memoire de ces deux Livres perdue That is All know to what degree the learned Rabelais gain'd the Esteem of the Nation by his wise Drolling on his Gargantua and Pantagruel soon after started up a couple of Apes who conceived that they could do as much viz. Leon l' Adulfy in his Propos Rustiques and the Anonymous Author of Fanfreluches But as ill did the one succeed as the other the Memory of those two Books being lost This Work of Rabelais is doubtless an Original by imitating and joyning in one so many others To imitate it is not only periculosae plenuâ— opus aleae but almost an impossible task nor is it easily to be defin'd We see that it is Historical Romantic Allegorical Comical Satirical But as sometimes all these kinds of Writing are united in one Passage aâ— others they appear severally I might say that it is partly Dramatic For there appears in it a great deal of Action The Dialogues of which it is full are as many lively Scenes Europe is the Stage and all Mankind is the Subject The Author with his Witty Drolling Prologues comes in between every act as the Silenâ— and the Satyri did in the Greek Satyric Plays Or if you had rather have it so he supplys the place of the Chorus in some of the Old Comedies The five Books answer exactly the five Acts and it might perhaps as easily be made appear by a D' acier that he has manag'd his Drama regularly as by a Bossu that the Father of Epic Poetry has observed a Just Conduct in his Iliads It has the Form of an History or rather of Romances which it tacitly ridicules I mean such of them as those Ages produced which preceded the Restoration of Learning that chiefly happened when our Author lived your Amadis de Gaule Lancelot du Lac Tristan Kyrie Eleison of Montauban c. For then Kyrie Eleison and Deuteronomy were taken for the names of Saints somewhat like the Epitomizers of Gesner's Bibliotheque who have ascribed Amadis to one Acuerdo Olvido not knowing that these two Words which they found on the Title page of the French version of that Book were the Translators Spanish Motto that signifies Remembrance Oblivion Our Author seems to have mimick'd those Books even in their Titles in their Division into Chapters and in the odd Accounts of their Contents I am much mistaken if in many places he has not also affected their Style tho in others he displays all the Purity and Elegancy which the French-Tongue which he has much improved had at that Time As for the mixture of odd Burlesque Barbarous Latin Greek and obsolete Words which is seen in his Book 't is justifiable as it serves to add to the Diversion of the Reader pleased generally the more the greater is the Variety principally in so odd a Work About Twenty Years before it was composed Theophilus Folengi a Monk born at Mantua of a Noble Family who is hardly known now otherwise than by the name of Merlinus Coccaius had put out his Liber Macaronicorum which is a Poetical Rhapsody made up of Words of different Languages and treating of pleasant Matters in a Comical Style The word Macarone in Italian signifies a Jolly Clown and Macaroni a sort of Cakes made with course Meal Eggs and Cheese as Thomasin observes He published also another Work which he called Il libro della Gatta in the same Style and another only Macaronic in part called Chaos del tri per uno A learned Critic has esteemed that sort of Writing to be a third kind of Burlesque Nor was Folengi only followed by his Country-men as Gaurinus Capella in his Macarone de Rimini against Cabri Ré de Gogue magogue in 1526 and Caesar Vrsinus who calls himself Stopinus in his Capriccia Macaronica 1536 For the learned William Drummond Author of the History of Scotland and of some divine Poems has left us an ingenious Macaronie Poem called Polemo-Middinia printed at the Theatre at Oxford 1691. Rabelais has imitated and improved some fine Passages of that of Coccaius as well as his Style Though Mr. Baillet in his Iugement des Scavans thinks that it would be an impossible Task to preserve its Beauties in a Translation The Italians affect those mixt sorts of Languages in their Burlesque Poetry They have one sort which they call Pedantesca from the Name of the Persons of whom it most treats
them our diversion rather than attack them directly and with a Concern which they are not worthy to cause Ridiculum acri plenius ac melius magnas plerumque secat res says Horace 'T is true that those whose Temper enclines them to a Stoical Severity will not have the same taste and indeed rallying seldom or never become them but those who would benefit themselves by the perusal of Rabelais need not imitate his Buffoonry and it is enough if it inwardly move us and spread there such Seeds of Joy as will produce on all sorts of Subjects an infinite number of pleasant Reflections In those places that are most Dangerous a judicious Reader will curb his Thoughts and Desires considering that the way is slippery and thus will easily be safe with wise Refections moderating his Affections 'T is even better to drink some too strong Wines tempering them with Water which makes them but the more Pleasant then to confine our selves to flat and insipid Liquors which neither affect the Palate nor cheer us within The Roman Ladies us'd to view the Wrastlers naked in the Cirque and one of them discreetly said that a vertuos Woman was not more scandaliz'd at their Sight then at that of a Statue of which great numbers were naked in all Places Thus the sight of those Females at Sparta who danc'd naked being only covered with the publick honesty made no ill Impression on the Beholders We may pass over with as much ease the impurities of our Historian as we forgive to excellent Painters nudities which they too faithfully represent and we may only admire and fix our Eyes on the other parts of the Piece Omnia Sana Sanis The Wise can benefit themselves even by the worst of Books like those Ducks of Pontus to whom as Aulus Gellius says Poysons are â—ather wholsom than hurtful or those Bees of Pliny that being gifted by Nature with the Vertue of the Psylli could usefully feed on the juice and substance of the most venemous Weeds The Learned Iesuit who in favour of his Friend Balsac writ a Treatise against Burlesque cannot forbear granting as much since he says Scriptores nostri quovis e genere librorum etiam non optimorum aucupantur vtilitatem aliquam omnes undique stosculos delibant quo fere pacto princeps olim Poetarum legere se gemmas ex Enniano stercore dicebat The Age in which our Author wrote was not so reserv'd in Words as this and perhaps he has not so much followed his own Genius in making use of gross or loose expressions as he has endeavoured to accommodate his way of Writing to the Humour of the People not excepting a part of the Clergy of those Times Now we ought not to blame those Authors who wrote in former Ages for differing from us in several Things since they follow'd Customs and Manners which were then generally receiv'd though now they seem to us improper or unjust To discover all the Beauties in their Works we must a while lay aside the Thoughts of our Practice if it contradicts theirs otherwise all Books will be very short-liv'd and the best Writers being disheartned with the Thoughts of the speedy Oblivion or contempt of their Works will no longer strive to deserve an immortal Fame which fantastic Posterity would deny them Some would altogether forbid the perusal of our Author Du Verdier in his Biblioteque which gives an account of all those that had writ in French till about the Year 1585 has inserted a large invective made against Rabelais by an Author whom I have discovered to be Schoock These are his Words Vtinam vel apud illos sit Rabelesus cum suo Pantagruelismo ut scurrilis hominis scurrili voce abutar Certè si quid callet bonae artis cogatur in eas tandem se exercere alioqui tam impius homo quà m publicè suis nefariis libellis pâ—stilens c. Neque semel deploravi hominis sortem qui in tantâ literarum luce tam densis sese viâ—icrum tenebris immergit Others principally of the Papist Clergy have not been more kind to him of which he himself complains in some places of his Book much like an Author whom he accuses of filching in his 1st Prologue 'T is Angelus Politian a famous Latin Poet who liv'd a little before him and was also a Priest and a Prebend he was a great admirer of Plautus whose perusal the Florentine Preachers would not allow in the Universities So partly on that account he expresses himself in these Terms Epist. Lib. 7. Sed qui nos damnant histirones sunt maximi Nam Curios simulant vivunt Bacchanalia Hi sunt praecipuè quidam clamosi leves Cucullati lignipedes cincti funibus Superciliosum incurvicervicum pecus Qui quod ab aliis â—abitu victu dissentiunt Tristique vultu vendunt sanctimonias Censuram sibi quandam Tyrannidem occupant Pavidamque plebem territant minaciis In which Verses by the way he has made use of a word which an ancient Critic also an admirer of Plautus mentions as Burlesque But to show that our Author's way of Writing is not of the kind of those which ancient Philososophers have condemn'd we need but consider that there is at least as much boldness and impurity in that very Plautus and the ancient Greek Comedy Yet Cicero whom all must grant to be a great Judge of good Writing and Morality speaking of the merry oâ— ridiculing way of writing which was to be condemn'd opposes to it that of Plautus the ancient Comedy and the Books of the Disciples of Socrates These are his Words Duplex omnino est jocandi genus Vnum â—â—berale petulans flagitiosum obscaenum Alterum elegans urbanum ingeniosum facetum Quo genere non modo Plautus noster Atticorum antiqua comoedia sed etiam Philosophorum Socraticorum libri referti sunt After all as I could wish that some Expressions which I will not only call too bold and too free but even immodest and Prophane had not been in this Book I would not have those Persons to read it whose Lives are so well regulated that they would not employ a moment of which they might not give an account without Blushing nor those whose Minds not being ripened by Years and Study are most susceptible of dangerous Impressions Doubtless they may do much better than to read this Book Some therefore will think that either it was not to be Translated or ought to have been translated otherwise and that as in the most handsom Faces there is always some Line which we could wish were not there so if those things which here may shock some persons had been omitted or softned it would more justly and more generally have pleased I suppose that the Translator would have done so had he not been affraid to have taken out some Material Thing hid under the Veil of some unhappy Expression instead of taking away a bare Trifle But as
of the softness of the said Doun and of the temperate heat of the Goose which is easily communicated to the Bumgut and the rest of the Intestines insofar as to come even to the Regions of the Heart and Brains And think not that the Felicity of the Heroes and Demigods in the Elysian Fields consisteth either in their Asphodele Ambrosia or Nectar as our old Women here use to say but in this according to my judgment that they wipe their Tails with the Neck of a Goose holding her Head betwixt their Legs and such is the Opinion of Master Iohn of Scotland CHAP. XIV How Gargantua was taught Latin by a Sophister THE good Man Grangousier having heard this discourse was ravish'd with Admiration considering the high reach and marvellous understanding of his Son Gargantua and said to his Governesses Philip King of Macedon knew the great Wit of his Son Alexander by his skilful managing of a Horse for his Horse Bucephalus was so fierce and unruly that none durst adventure to ride him after that he had given to his Riders such devillish falls breaking the Neck of this Man the other Man's Leg braining one and cracking another's Jaw-bone This by Alexander being considered one day in the Hippodrome which was a place appointed for the breaking and managing of great Horses he perceived that the fury of the Horse proceeded meerly from the fear he had of his own shadow whereupon getting on his back he run him against the Sun so that the shadow fell behind and by that means tamed the Horse and brought him to his hand Whereby his Father perceiving his marvellous Capacity and divine Insight caused him most carefully to be instructed by Aristotle who at that time was highly renowned above all the Philosophers of Greece After the same manner I tell you that by this only discourse which now I have here had before you with my Son Gargantua I know that his Understanding doth participate of some Divinity and that if he be well taught and have that Education which is fitting he will attain to a supream degree of Wisdom Therefore will I commit him to some learned Man to have him indoctrinated according to his Capacity and will spare no cost Presently they appointed him a great Sophister-Doctor called Master Tubal Holophernes who taught him his ABC so well that he could say it by heart backwards and about this he was Five Years and three Months Then read he to him Donat facet theodolet and Alanus in parabolis About this he was Thirteen Years six Months and two Weeks But you must remark that in the mean time he did learn to write in Gottish Characters and that he wrote all his Books for the Art of Printing was not then in use And did ordinarily carry a great Pen and Inkhorn weighing above Seven thousand Quintals the Pen-case vvhereof vvas as big and as long as the great Pillar of Enay and the Horn vvas hanged to it in great Iron Chains it being of the vvideness to hold a Tun of Merchand Ware After that vvas read unto him the Book de modis significandi with the Commentaries of Hurtbise of Fasquin of Tropifeu of Gaulhaut of Iohn Calf of Billonio of Berlinguandus and a rabble of others and herein he spent more then Eighteen Years and eleven Months and was so well versed therein that to try Masteries in School-disputes with his Condisciples he would recite it by heart backwards And did sometimes prove on his Fingers ends to his Mother Quod de modis significandi non erat scientia Then was read to him the Compost on which he spent Sixteen Years and two Months And at that very time which was in the Year 1420 his said Praeceptor died of the Pox. Afterwards he got an old coughing Fellow to teach him named Master Iobelin Bridé vvho read unto him Hugotio Flebard Grecism the Doctrinal the Pars the Quid est the Supplementum Marmoretus de moribus in mensa servandis Seneca de quatuor virtutibus cardinalibus Passaventus cum commento and Dormi securè for the Holy-days and other such llke stuff by reading vvhereof he became as vvise as any vve ever since baked in an Oven CHAP. XV. How Gargantua was put under other School-masters AT the last his Father perceived that indeed he studied hard and that although he spent all his time therein yet for all that did he profit nothing but vvhich is worse grew thereby a Fool a Sot a Doult and Block-head whereof making a heavy complaint to Don Philip of Marays Viceroy of Papeligosse he found that it were better for his Son to learn nothing at all then to be taught such like Books under such School-masters because their Knowledge was nothing but all Trifle and their Wisdom Foppery serving only to basterdize good and noble Spirits and to corrupt the Flower of Youth That it is so take said he any Young Boy of this time who hath only studied two Years if he have not a better Judgment a better Discourse and that expressed in better Terms then your Son with a compleater Carriage and Civility to all manner of persons account me for ever hereafter a very clounch and baconslicer of Brene This pleased Grangousier very well and he commanded that it should be done At night at supper the said Don Philip brought in a young Page of his of Ville-gouges called Eudemon so neat so trim so handsom in his Apparel so spruce with his Hair in so good Order and so sweet and comely in his behaviour that he had the resemblance of a little Angel more than of a human Creature Then he said to Grangousier Do you see this young Boy He is not as yet full twelve years old let us try if it like you what difference there is betwixt the knowledge of the Dunces Mateologian of old time and the young Lads that are now The Tryal pleased Grangousier and he commanded the Page to begin Then Eudemon asking leave of the Vice-Roy his Master so to do vvith his Cap in his hand a clear and open countenance beautiful and ruddy Lips his Eyes steady and his Looks fixed upon Gargantua with a youthful modesty standing up strait on his feet began to commend him first for his Vertue and good Manners secondly for his knowledg thirdly for his Nobility fourthly for his bodily accomplishments and in the fifth place most sweetly exhorted him to reverence his Father with all due observancy vvho was so careful to have him well brought up in the end he prayed him that he vvould vouchsafe to admit of him amongst the least of his Servants for other Favour at that time desired he none of Heaven but that he might do him some grateful and acceptable Service all this was by him delivered vvith such proper gestures such distinct Pronunciation so pleasant a Delivery in such exquisite fine Terms and so good Latin that he seemed rather a Gracchus a Cicero an Aemilius of the time past then a
me nor perswaded me by your fair Speeches and smooth Talk to enter never so little into the Thraldom of Debt You shall owe to none saith the Holy Apostle any thing save Love Friendship and a mutual Benevolence You serve me here I confess with fine Graphides and Diatyposes Descriptions and Figures which truly please me very well But let me tell you if you will represent unto your Fancy an impudent blustering Bully and an importunate Borrower entring afresh and newly into a Town already advertised of his Manners you shall find that at his Ingress the Citizens will be more hideously affrighted and amazed and in a greater terror and fear dread and trembling than if the Pest it self should step into it in the very same Garb and Accoutrement wherein the Tyanaean Philosopher found it within the City of Ephesus And I am fully confirmed in the Opinion that the Persians erred not when they said That the Second Vice was to Lie the first being that of owing Money For in very truth Debts and Lying are ordinarily joyned together I will nevertheless not from hence infer that none must owe any thing or lend any thing For who so rich can be that sometimes may not owe or who can be so poor that sometimes may not lend Let the occasion notwithstanding in that case as Plato very wisely sayeth and ordaineth in his Laws be such that none be permitted to draw any Water out of his Neighbour's Well until first they by continual digging and delving into their own proper Ground shall have hit upon a kind of Potters Earth which is called Ceramite and there had found no source or drop of Water for that sort of Earth by reason of its Substance which is fat strong firm and close so retaineth its Humidity that it doth not easily evaporate it by any outward excursion or evaporation In good sooth it is a great shame to choose rather to be still borrowing in all places from every one than to work and win Then only in my Judgment should one lend when the diligent toiling and industrious Person is no longer able by his labour to make any Purchase unto himself or otherwise when by mischance he hath suddenly fallen into an unexpected loss of his Goods Howsoever let us leave this Discourse and from henceforwards do not hang upon Creditors nor tie your self to them I make account for the time past to rid you freely of them and from their Bondage to deliver you The least I should in this point quoth Panurge is to thank you though it be the most I can do And if Gratitude and Thanksgiving be to be estimated and prized by the Affection of the Benefactor that is to be done infinitely and sempiternally for the love which you bear me of your own accord and free Grace without any merit of mine goeth far beyond the reach of any price or value it transcends all weight all number all measure it is endless and everlasting therefore should I offer to commensurate and adjust it either to the size and proportion of your own noble and gracious Deeds or yet to the Contentment and Delight of the obliged Receivers I would come off but very faintly and flaggingly You have verily done me a great deal of good and multiplied your Favours on me more frequently than was fitting to one of my condition You have been more bountiful towards me than I have deserved and your Courtesies have by far surpassed the extent of my merits I must needs confess it But it is not as you suppose in the proposed matter For there it is not where I itch it is not there where it fretteth hurts or vexeth me for henceforth being quit and out of Debt what Countenance will I be able to keep You may imagine that it will become me very ill for the first month because I have never hitherto been brought up or accustomed to it I am very much afraid of it Furthermore there shall not one hereafter Native of the Country of Salmigondy but he shall level the Shot towards my Nose all the back-cracking Fellows of the World in discharging of their Postern Petarades use commonly to say Voila pour les quitters that is For the quit My Life will be of very short continuance I do foresee it I recommend to you the making of my Epitaph for I perceive I will die confected in the very stinch of Farts If at any time to come by way of restorative to such good Women as shall happen to be troubled with the grievous pain of the Wind-Cholick the ordinary Medicaments prove nothing effectual the Mummy of all my befarted Body will streight be as a present Remedy appointed by the Physicians whereof they taking any small Modicum it will incontinently for their Ease afford them a Rattle of Bum-shot like a Sal of Muskets Therefore would I beseech you to leave me some few Centuries of Debts as King Louis the Eleventh exempting from Suits in Law the Reverend Milles d' Illiers Bishop of Chartre was by the said Bishop most earnestly sollicited to leave him some few for the Exercise of his mind I had rather give them all my Revenue of the Periwinkles together with the other Incomes of the Locusts albeit I should not thereby have any parcel abated from off the principal Sums which I owe. Let us wave this matter quoth Pantagruel I have told it you over again CHAP. VI. Why new Married Men were priviledged from going to the Wars BUT in the Interim asked Panurge by what Law was it constituted ordained and established that such as should plant a new Vineyard those that should build a new House and the new married Men should be exempted and discharged from the Duty of Warfare for the first year By the Law answered Pantagruel of Moyses Why replyed Panurge the lately married As for the Vine-Planters I am now too old to reflect on them my Condition at this present induceth me to remain satisfied with the care of Vintage finishing and turning the Grapes into Wine Nor are these pretty new Builders of Dead Stones written or pricked down in my Book of Life it is all with Live Stones that I set up and erect the Fabricks of my Architecture to wit Men. It was according to my Opinion quoth Pantagruel to the end First That the fresh married Folks should for the first year reap a full and compleat Fruition of their Pleasures in their mutual exercise of the act of Love in such sort that in waiting more at leisure on the production of Posterity and propagating of their Progeny they might the better encrease their Race and make Provision of new Heirs That if in the years thereafter the Men should upon their undergoing of some Military Adventure happen to be killed their Names and Coats of Arms might continue with their Children in the same Families And next that the Wives thereby coming to know whether they were barren or fruitful for one years Trial
only in this but in several other matters also of the like nature have spoken at random and rather out of an ambitious Envy to check and reprehend their Betters than for any design to make enquiry into the solid Truth I will not launch my little Skif any further into the wide Ocean of this Dispute only will I tell you that the Praise and Commendation is not mean and slender which is due to those honest and good Women who living chastly and without blame have had the power and vertue to curb range and subdue that unbridled heady and wild Animal to an obedient submissive and obsequious yielding unto Reason Therefore here will I make an end of my Discourse thereon when I shall have told you that the said Animal being once satiated if it be possible that it can be contented or satisfied by that Aliment which Nature hath provided for it out of the Epididymal Store-house of Man all its former and irregular and disordered Motions are at an end laid and asswaged all its vehement and unruly Longings lulled pacified and quieted and all the furious and raging Lusts Appetites and Desires thereof appeased suppressed calmed and extinguished For this cause let it seem nothing strange unto you if we be in a perpetual Danger of being Cuckolds that is to say such of us as have not wherewithal fully to satisfie the Appetite and Expectation of that voracious Animal Ods Fish quoth Panurge have you no preventive Cure in all your Medicinal Art for hindring ones â—ead to be Horny-graffed at home whilst his Feet are plodding abroad Yes that I have my gallant Friend answered Rondibilis and that which is a Sovereign Remedy whereof I frequently make use my self and that you may the better relish it is set down and written in the Book of a most famous Author whose Renown is of a standing of two thousand Years Hearken and take good heed You are quoth Panurge by Cocks-Hobby a right honest Man and I love you with all my heart eat a little of this Quince-Pye it is very proper and convenient for the shutting up of the Orifice of the Ventricle of the Stomach because of a kind of astringent Stypticity which is in that sort of Fruit and is helpful to the first Concoction But what I think I speak Latin before Clerks Stay fill I give you somewhat to drink out of this Nestorian Goblet Will you have another Draught of white Hippocras Be not afraid of the Squinzy No There is neither Squinant Ginger nor Grains in it only a little choice Cinnamon and some of the best refined Sugar with the delicious White-wine of the Growth of that Vine which was set in the Slips of the great Sorbaple above the Wallnut-tree CHAP. XXXIII Rondibilis the Physician 's Cure of Cuckoldry AT that time quoth Randibilis when Iupitur took a view of the state of his Olympick House and Family and that he had made the Calender of all the Gods and Goddesses appointing unto the Festival of every one of them its proper day and season establishing certain fixed places and stations for the pronouncing of Oracles and relief of travelling Pilgrims and ordaining Victims Immolations and Sacrifices suitable and correspondent to the Dignity and Nature of the worshipped and adored Deity Did not he do asked Panurge therein as Tintouille the Bishop of Auxerre is said once to have done This Noble Prelate loved entirely the pure Liquor of the Grape as every honest and judicious Man doth therefore was it that he had an especial care and regard to the Bud of the Vine-tree as to the great Grandfather of Bacchus But so it is that for sundry Years together he saw a most pitiful Havock Desolation and Destruction made amongst the Sprouts Shootings Buds Blossoms and Sciens of the Vines by hoary Frosts Dank-fogs hot Mists unseasonable Colds chill Blasts thick Hail and other calamitous Chances of foul Weather happening as he thought by the dismal inauspiciousness of the Holy Days of St George St. Mary St. Paul St. Eutrope Holy Rood the Ascension and oâ—her Festivals in that time when the Sun passeth under the Sign of Taurus and thereupon harboured in his Mind this Opinion that the afore-named Saints were Saint Hail-flingers Saint Frost-senders Saint Fogmongers and Saint Spoilers of the Vine-buds for which cause be went about to have transmitted their Feasts from the Spring to the Winter to be Celebrated between Christmas and Epiphany so the Mother of the three Kings called it allowing them with all Honour and Reverence the liberty then to freeze hail and rain as much as they would for that he knew that at such a time Frost was rather profitable than hurtful to the Vine-buds and in their steads to have placed the Festivals of St. Christopher St. Iohn the Baptist St. Magdalene St. Ann St. Domingo and St. Lawrence yea and to have gone so far as to collocate and transpose the middle of August in and to the beginning of May because during the whole Space of their Solemnity there was so little danger of hoary Frosts and cold Mists that no Artificers are then held in greater Request than the Afforder of refrigerating Inventions Makers of Junkets fit Disposers of cooling Shades Composers of green Arbours and Refreshers of Wine Iupiter said Rondibilis forgot the poor Devil Cuckoldry who was then in the Court at Paris very eagerly solliciting a pedling Suit at Law for one of his Vassals and Tenants within some few days thereafter I have forgot how many when he got full notice of the Trick which in his Absence was done unto him he instantly desisted from prosecuting Legal Processes in the behalf of others full of Sollicitude to pursue after his own business lest he should be fore-closed And thereupon he appeared personally at the Tribunal of the great Iupiter displayed before him the importance of his preceeding Merits together with the acceptable Services which in Obedience to his Commandments he had formerly performed and therefore in all humility begged of him that he would be pleased not to leave him alone amongst all the Sacred Potentates destitute and void of Honour Reverence Sacrifices and festival Ceremonies To this Petition Iupiter's Answer was excusatory That all the Places and Offices of his House were bestowed Nevertheless so importuned was he by the continual Supplications of Monsieur Cuckoldry that he in fine placed him in the Rank List Roll Rubrick and Catalogue and appointed Honours Sacrifices and Festival Rites to be observed on Earth in great Devotion and tendred to him with Solemnity The Feast because there was no void empty nor vacant place in all the Calender was to be celebrated jointly with and on the same day that had been consecrated to the Goddess Iealousie His Power and Dominion should be over Married Folks especially such as had handsom Wives His Sacrifices were to be Suspicion Diffidence Mistrust a lowring powting Sullenness Watchings Wardings Researchings Plyings Explorations together with the Way-layings
pro eâ qua pollebat Linguarum Medicinae Scientià multa graviter eruditè posset scribere quod Hippocratis Aphorismi ab illo castâ fide traducta aliquot Epistolae nitido Stylo conscriptae satis indicant Lucianum tamen aemulari maluit ad cujus exemplum ea Sermone Patrio finxit quae nugae esse videntur sed ejusmodi tamen sunt ut Lectorem quemlibet eruditum capiant incredibili quadam voluptate perfundant Neque solùm erat in scribendo salis facetiarum plenus verum eandem jocandi libertatem apud quemlibet in omni sermone retinebat adeò ut Romam Joanne Bellajo Cardinale profectus in Pauli III. conspectum venire jussus ne ipsi quidem Pontifici Maximo pepercerit Atque hunc intemperantiae suae causam ingeniosè praetexebat quòd cum sanitati conservandae nihil magis officiat quà m maeror aegrimonia prudentis Medici partes sint non minus in mentibus hominum exhilarandis quà m in corporibus curandis laborare Anton. Van Dale De Oraculis Consecrationibus p. 341. DE Oraculis Sortibus inter alia scripsit per Lusum Jocum doctissimus magâ—us ille Gallus Rabelaesius cujus nugae saepius multorum doctorum seria vincunt in vitâ gestis Gargantuae Pantagruelis tam doctè meo judicio quam lepidè ac falsè Sir William Temple in his Miscellanea Second Part. THE great Wits among the Moderns have been in my Opinion and in their several Kinds of the French Rabelais and Montagne Rabelais seems to have been Father of the Ridicule a Man of excellent and universal Learning as well as Wit and though he had too much Game given him for Satyr in that Age by the Customs of Courts and of Convents of Processes and of Wars of Schools and of Camps of Romances and Legends yet he must be confest to have kept up his vein of Ridicule by saying many things so Smutty and Prophane that a pious Man could not have afforded though he had never so much of that Coyn about him And it were to be wished that the Wits who have imitated him had not put too much value upon a Dress that better Understandings would not wear at least in public and upon a compass they gave themselves which some other Men cannot take Mr. l'Abbe Costar dans son Apologie A Monsieur Menage Pag. 149. RAbelais est autant a la mode quil fut jamais Ses railleries sont agreables d'un Agreément qui ne finira point tant qu'il y aura Sur la Terre d' habiles Rieurs Les modes les habillemens changeront toûjours mais non pas celles des bons contes des bons mots qui se soustiennent d'eux mesmes qui sont en effet de bonnes choses Ceux de Plaute de Lucien quelques vieux qu'ils foient ne laissent pas de conserver la fleur la Grace quils avoient dans leur nouveauâ—é M. Estienne Pasquier Conseiller du Roy Avocat General en sa Chambre des Comptes a Paris Au Livre de ses Recherches de la France JE mettray entre les Poetes du mesme Temps Francois Rabelais Car combien qu'il ait crit en prose les Faits heroiques de Gargantua Pantagruel il estoit mis au rangdes Poetes comme l'prend la responce que Marot fit a Sagon sous le nom de Fripelipes fon Valet Je ne voy point qu'un Saint Gelais Un Heroet un Rabelais Un Brodeau un Seve un Chapuy Voisent escrivant contre luy Aux gayetez qu'il mit en lumiere se mocquans de toute chose il serendit le Nompareil Dema part je recognoitray franchement avoir l'esprit si folastre que jene me lassay jamais de le lire ne le leu jamais que je n'y trouvasse matierede rire d'en faire mon profit tout ensemble PREFACE· Wherein is given an Account of the Design and Nature of this Work and a Key to some of its most difficult Passages THE History of Gargantua and Pantagruel has always been esteem'd a Masterpiece of Wit and Learning by the best Judges of both Even the most grave and reserv'd among the Learned in many Countries but particularly in France have thought it worthy to hold a place in their Closets and have past many hours in private with that diverting and instructive Companion And as for those whose Age and Profession did not incline them to be reserv'd all France can witness that there has been but few of them who could not be said to have their Rabelais almost by heart Since Mirth could hardly be compleat among those that love it unless their good Cheer were season'd with some of Rabelais's Wit Fifty large Editions of that Book have not suffic'd the World and though the Language in which it is writ be not easily unstood now by those who only converse with modern French Books yet it has been reprinted several Times lately in France and Holland even in its antiquated Style Indeed some are of Opinion That the odd and quaint Terms used in that Book add not a little to the Satisfaction which is found in its perusal but yet this can only be said of such of them as are understood and when a Reader meets with many words that are unintelligible I mean to him that makes it not his business to know the meaning of dark and obsolete Expressions the Pleasure which what he understands yields him is in a greater measure allay'd by his disappoâ—ntment of which we have Instances when we read Chaucer and other Books which we do not throughly understand Sir Thomas Vrwhart has avoided that obscurity in this following Translation of Rabelais so that most English Readers may now understand that Author in our Tongue better then many of the French can do in theirs To do him justice it was necessary that a Person not only Master of the French but also of much Leasure and Fancy should undertake the Task The Translator was not only happy in their things but also in being a learned Physitian and having besides some French Men near him who understood Rabelais very well and could explain to him the most difficult words and I think that before the first and second Books of Rabelais which are all that was formerly printed of that Author in English there were some Verses by Men of that Nation in praise of his Translation It was too kindly received not to have encouraged him to English the remaining three Books or at least the Third the fourth and fifth being in a manner distinct as being Pantagruel's Voyage Accordingly he translated the third Book and probably would have finished the whole had not Death prevented him So the said third Book being found long after in Manuscript among his Papers somewhat incorrect a Gentleman who is not only a very great
Linguist but also deservedly famous for his ingenious and learned Composures was lately pleased to revise it as well as the two first which had been publish'd about thirty years ago and are extreamly scarce He thought it necessary to make considerable Alterations that the Translation might have the smartness genuin Sence and the very Style and Air of the Original but yet to preserve the latter he has not thought fit to alter the Style of the Translation which suits as exactly with that of the Author as possible neither affecting the politeness of the most nice and refin'd of our Modern English Writers nor yet the roughness of our antiquated Authors but such a Medium as might neither shock the Ears of the fiâ—st nor displease those who would have an exact imitation of the style of Rabelais Since the first Edition of those two Books of Rabelais was so favourably entertain'd without the third without any account of the Author or any Observations to discover that mysterious History 'T is hop'd that they will not meet with a worse usage now they appear again so much improv'd with the addition of a third never printed before in English and a large account of the Author's Life but principally since we have here an Explication of the Enigmatic Sence of part of that admirable Mythologist's Works both which have been so long wanted though never till now publish'd in any Language THE ingenious of our Age as well as those who liv'd when Rabelais compos'd his Gargantua and Pantagruel have been extreamly desirous of discovering the Truths which are hid under the dark veil of Allegories in that incomparable work The great Thuanus found it worthy of being mention'd in his excellent History as a most ingenious Satyr on Persons who were the most distinguish'd in the Kingdom of France by their Quality and Employments and without doubt he who was the best of all our Modern Historians and liv'd soon after it was writ had trac'd the private Design of Rabelais and found out the true Names of the Persons whom he has introduc'd on his Scene with Names not only imaginary but generally ridiculous and whose Actions he represents as ridiculous as those Names But as it would have been dangerous having unmask'd those Persons to have expos'd them to public view in a Kingdom where they were so powerful and as most of the Adventures which are mystically represented by Rabelais relate to the affairs of Religion so those few who have understood the true sence of that Satyr have not dar'd to reveal it In the late Editions some learned Men have given us a Vocabulary wherein they explain the Names and Terms in it which are originally Greek Latin Hebrew or of other Tongues that the Text might thus be made more intelligible and their work may be useful to those who do not understand those Tongues But they have not bad the same success in their pretended Explications of the Names which Rabelais has given to the real Actors in this Farce and thus they have indeed fram'd a Key but if I may use the Allegory 't was without having known the Wards and Springs of the Lock What I advance will doubtless be owned to be true by those who may have observed that by that Key none can discover in those Pythagorical Symbols as they are call'd in the Author's Prologue to the first Book any Event that has a Relation to the History of those to whom the Names mention'd by Rabelais have been applyed by those that made that pretended Key They tell us in it that King Grangousier is the same as King Lewis the 12th of France that Gargantua is Francis the first and that Henry the second is the true Name of Pantagruel but we discover none of Lewis the twelfth's Features in King Grangousier who does none of the Actions which History ascribes to that Prince so that the King of Siam or the Cham of Tartary might as reasonably be imagined to be Grangousier as Lewis the twelfth as much may be said of Gargantua and of Pantagruel who do none of the things that have been remark'd by Historians as done by the Kings Francis the first and Henry the second of France This Reason which of its self is very strong will much more appear to be such if we reflect on the Author's Words in the Prologue to the first Book In the perusal of this Treatise says he you shall find another kind of Taste and a Doctrine of a more profound and abstruse Consideration which will disclose to you the most glorious Doctrine and dreadful Mysteries as well in what concerneth your Religion as matters of the public State and Life Oeconomical Mysteries which as he tells us are the Juice and Substantial Marrow of his Work To this Reason I add another as strong and evident It is that we find in Grangousier Gargantua and Pantagruel Characters that visibly distinguish them from the three Kings of France which I have nam'd and from all the other Kings their Predecessors In the first Place Grangousier's Kingdom is not France but a State particularly distinct from it which Gargantua and Pantagruel call Vtopia Secondly Gargantua is not born in the Kingdom of France but in that of Vtopia Thirdly He leaves Paris call'd back by his Father that he might come to the Relief of his Country which was attack'd by Picrochole's Army And finally Francis the First is distinguished from Gargantua in the 39 th Chap. of the first Book when Fryar Ihon des Entoumeures says in the Presence of Gargantua and eating at his Table had I been in the time of Iesus Christ I would have kept him from being taken by the Iews in the Garden of Olivet and the Devil fail me if I should have fail'd to cut off the Hams of these Gentlemen Apostles who ran away so basely after they had well supp'd and left their good Master in the Lurch I hate that Man worse than Poyson that offers to run away when he should fight and lay stoutly about him Oh if I were but King of France for fourscore or an hundred Years by G I should whip like cut tail Dogs these Run aways of Pavia a Plague take them c. But if Francis the First is not Gargantua likewise Pantagruel is not Henry the Second and if it were needful I would easily shew That the Authors of that pretended Key have not only been mistaken in those Names but in all the others which they undertook to decypher and that they only spoke at random without the least Grounds or Authorities from History All things are right so far but the difficulty lyeth not there we ought to show who are the Princes that are hid under the Names of Grangousier Gargantua and Pantagruel if yet we may suppose them to be Princes But such a Discovery cannot be very easily made because most of their Actions are only described in Allegories and in so confus'd and enigmatic a Manner that we do not