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
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
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
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
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
Devil of Pope-feague-land in his inimitable Contes and Nouvelles There was a Iack-pudding in France in that Age call'd Triboulet but I believe that the Fool whom our Author describes in the 38. Chapter is one more considerable though less famous I cannot guess why he has heap'd up so many Adjectives on that Fool unless it be to show the excess of his Folly and to mock some of the Authors of that Age who often bestow'd a large train of such unnecessary Attendants on a single Noun Substantive Marotte is a word very much us'd by the French signifying a Fools Bauble or Club and the word â—ou given by Rabelais to Triboulet implys a mad crack'd-brain'd or inconsiderate Man and also a Jester the word Idiot being more us'd in French for what we properly call a Fool Now Clement Marot the best Poet in the Reign of Francis the First whose Valet-de Chambre he was Styled was a notable Iester and is said to have played many merry Tricks that relished somewhat of Extravagance Besides many among the Vulgar mistaking the Enthusiasm of Poets for Madness have but a small Opinion of the Wisdom of most of them But these Considerations do not seem to me strong enough to make me believe that Rabelais would have passed so severe a Censure on that Poet who was then but lately dead an Exile for his Religion and had made honourable mention of him in his Works they being undoubtedly intimate Friends Judge Bridlegoose who decided Causes by the Chance of Dice and was Arraigned for Prevarication at the Bar of the Parliament of Mirelingois resembles much a Judge of Montmartre who they say could neither Write nor Read yet had been a Judge many Years and being once called into Question in a superior Court owned his Ignorance as to the Point of Writing and Reading but affirmed that he knew the Law and desiring that the Cause of which an Appeal had been made from his Jurisdiction might be examined he was found to have done Justice and his Sentence and Authority were confirmed Rabelais takes Notice of such a Story as is that of his Bridlegoose vulgarly reported of the Provost of Montlehery But though he may allude to it and to that of the Bayliff of Montmartre which perhaps may be the same I believe that his Bridlegoose is a Man of greater Consequence Considering the strong Intercession made for him by Pantagruel and the others whom he shows on his Stage he may be Guillaume Poyet who by the favour of Loyse de Savoye the King's Mother his Client had been made Lord Chancellor of France and in 1545 being convinced of several Abuses and Prevarications was deprived of his Office I have said before that the Herb Pantagruelion is Hemp Rabelais makes Pantagruel load a great quantity of it on Board his Ships and indeed it is one of the most useful things in the World not only at Sea but also at Land The curious and pleasing Description of that Plant makes up the rest of this Third Book HAD not the following Translation of the three first Books of Rabelais been ready to be publish'd before I was desired to give an Account of them and of his Life I might have printed my Observations at the End of each Chapter and have given a more exact Commentary However I hope that I have said enough to shew that what appears trivial and foolish in that Work is generally Grave and of Moment when seriously examin'd Yet as I dare not offer my Conjectures as certainties principally on a Book which has been so universally read and admired and never till now attempted to be explained I humbly submit all I have said to the Judgment of the Learned to whom I will esteem my self much obliged if they will be pleased either to let me know wherein I have erred or communicate to me their Remarks on this Work which may be printed with the two remaining Books with their Names if they please and a thankful Acknowledgment of the Favour Having first done my Endeavour to satisfie the Reader concerning the Meaning of that mysterious History I hope to be now the more patiently suffered to give some Account of the Nature of the Fable the Style and the Design of it MANKIND is naturally addicted to the Love of Fables Long before Learning had been brought into Greece and Italy the Egyptians Persians Arabians and other Eastern Nations to Enhance the value of Truths which they did not think fit to be prostituted to the Vulgar hid them under the Veils of Allegories and Apologues they also used sometimes to lay aside the Study and Speculation of high mysteries to divert themselves with framing Stories which had nothing of Truth in them and no other design than most of our Romances Also in the Decay of Learning which followed that of the Roman Empire for want of true History and solid Knowledg Men fed their Minds with gross Fictions such as are the Legends of Monks and the old sorts of Romances Thus two opposite ways barren Ignorance and Luxuriant Learning leading Men often the same End that is the study of Fables their Number is as great as their Original is Ancient Herodotus says That the Greeks had from Aegypt their Mythologic Theology Homer brought from thence that Inclination to Fables which made him invent many things about the Original and Employments of his Gods and Pythagoras and Plato learned also there to disguise their Philosophy Thus our Author calls his Writings Pythagorical Symbols in the Prologue to his first Book and not without Reason since as I have made it appear the chief part of them is mysteriously writ But what those Ancient Philosophers did thro a Reverence of Nature ours did thro Necessity being forc'd to keep such a Medium as that he might be understood by all Readers in most parts of his Book yet by few Persons in others and might secure himself from the attacks of his Enemies by the Ambiguity of his Sence Lucian tells us that Fables were so much in vogue in Assyria and Arabia that there were persons whose only Profession iâ— was to explain them to the People and Erpenius assures that all the World together never produc'd so many Poets as the Latter As for Persia Strabo says that Teachers there us'd to give to their Disciples Precepts of Morality wrapt up in Fictions The Gymnosophists of India are said by Diogenes Laeâ—tius to have delivered their Philosophy in Enigmas So that the learned Huetius thinks that when Horace said Fabulosus Hydaspes 't was chiefly because its Spring is in Persia and its Mouth in India Countries through which it flows whose Inhabitants were Lovers of Fables And indeed it was from the Persians as that Prelate observes that those of Miletum in Ionia learned first to frame those amorous Fictions which were afterwards famous through Greece and Italy by the name of Milesian Fables which with Millions more of such insignificant voluminous Lyes are lost and forgotten as
and whom it imitates Greek Latin and Italian making up the Composition with an Italian Termination Some have celebrated the Amours of Grammarians and of others in that Italogrecolatin Tongue and I have seen a Book in Prose in that Idiom of Idioms entituled Hipnerotomachia di Polifilo Cioè combattimento di amore in Sogno or The Fight of Love in a Dream Dante is full of Latin and Provenzale of which he boasts saying Namque locutus sum in Lingua trina and Petrarch though more sparing of Latin has many French and Provensale Words even whole Lines of the latter ponendovene anche de i versi inâ—eri says one of his Country Men And besides a great Number of Books of Burlesque Poetry and Prose which they have in Lingua Bergamesca Bolognese Paduana Venetiana Bresciana Veronese Genouese Napolitana Romana Ciciliana Sarda c they sometimes have mixed several of those Dialects together This mixture of Languages and of odd and fantastic Terms has been censured by Vavassor chiefly because he pretends that the Ancients never us'd it though none will deny that they mixt Words and Verses of different kinds that has read of their Satura Lanx or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diomedes says Satyra est carmen quod ex variis poematibus constat and Lucilius whom Pliny says to have first found out Stylum Nasi the way of speaking us'd in Plays wrote in a low and vulgar Style mixt sometimes with Greek Plautus has Punic words and Cicero has Greek particularly in his Epistles But to show that odd words such as are found in our Author 's Burlesque Writings have been us'd by the Ancients we need but consult Diogenes Laertius and we shall find that Democritus allowed himself as great a Liberty in using odd Expressions as in laughing at Mankind For he had so many particular Words that a Greek Author made a Dictionary of them his Biographer relates some of them and Hesychius has preserv'd also one or two which he had probably out of that Dictionary that has been lost Vavassor himself owns that Aristophanes has verba inusitata composita ex multis verbis sonantibus and that in his Plays Persae Triballi Scythae patriâ barbarâ voce utuntur Laco Thessalus That Comic Poet has indeed many Words as strange as Rabelais as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from which the Latin have made coaxare then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which are the various Voices of Birds Then he has Diminutives as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and if Rabelais has very long Words so has Aristophanes as his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and many others among which the longest is made up of twenty eight and begins by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Also in the Anthologia Grammarians are call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and there is an Epigram by an ancient Poet all in such Burlesque against Philosophers which begins thus O 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. A great number of long Decomposites are found in Greek Authors and if the Latins have us'd them less 't is because their Tongue was not so happy in linking Words together as Quintilian observes Yet we have many in Plautus that are downright Burlesque of the the same kind as Ferritribaces Servilicolae Plagipatide Cluninstaridysarchides c. What shall we think of the Parodiae of which Aristophanes and Lucian are full and which Iulian has us'd in his Caesars as many more among the Greeks have done those Witticisms being a part of the Salt which they so much desir'd in all Jocose and Satyrical Composures As for the Puns Clenches Conundrums Quibbles and all such other Dregs or Bastard sorts of Wit that here and there have crept in among the infinite number of our Auhor's ingenious and just Conceptions I will not Apologize in their Behalf otherwise then by showing that Aristophanes and Plautus have strewed them more lavishly through their Works which are partly of the Nature of this Nor is it necessary to mention the great Tully and many more among the Ancients that allowed themselves the Freedom of using them many of those dropt in Conversation by that Orator having been thought wâ—â—thy to be made publick They were doubtless better lik'd in those times than they are now and we find them in as great a Number in almost all the Writers of the last Age that pretended to Wit nor have Rhetoricans refus'd to teach or use the Figure Antanaclasis So though we may mislike the Pun we may admire the Author since these are but so many small Spots which far from darkning him illustrate the Beauties by which they are plac'd None can mislike the great number of various Images which he gives of the same Things or the long train of verbs or substantives which he often sets together Indeed in another Work they might be thought redundant Ambitiâ—sa ornamenta rescindenda sunt But here those Terms tho they are often Technical and therefore instructing are only used to cause Mirth And they become our Author so well that we seldom read them over without laughing Mirth being so desirable a thing so beneficial to the Body and to the Mind and laughing one of the distinguishing Characters of Mankind our Author may be said not to have advantag'd the World a little in composing this merry Treatise He justifies himself in his Dedication to Cardinal Chastillon for his Comical Expressions by representing the ease which many disconlate and sick persons had received by them and he sayâ— before his first Book Le Râ—re est le propre de l' homme or as it has been English'd Laugh only so to show thy self a Man Even Caesar had writ a whole Book of merry and witty Sayings and Balsac a great Enemy to Burlesque has said que ce n'estoit paspeu meriter du genre humain que de réjouir quelquefois Auguste That Mankind was not a little obliged to the Man who sometimes could make Augustus merry That Emperor as Macrobius tells us did not think it below him sometimes to write Lampoons and made one on Pollio who knowing it said at ego taceo non est enim facile in eum conscribere qui potest prosâ—ribere Horace afteâ— he has said that it is not enough to make a Hearer laugh 〈◊〉 est quaedam haec quoque vâ—â—tus Nor has 〈…〉 only aim'd at Mirth tho he has partly â—â—de it subseâ—vient to his chief Design He knâ—w â—haâ— the learned and the â—gnorant by different motives delight in Fables and that the love of Mirth being universal the only way to cause his sentiments to be most known and followed was to give them a merry Dress The Counsel of Trent begun to â—it in 1545 and then our Author begun to write The Restauration of Learning had made the most knowing among the Clergy and the Layety desire that Primitive Christianity might also be restor'd Accordingly I find that when Rabelais was at Rome in
evidence of Reason satisfie their Readers His Folly and want of Wit in that he thought that without any other demonstration or sufficient Argument the World would be pleased to make his blockish and ridiculous Impositions the rule of their Devices In effect according to the Proverb To shitten Tails Turd never fails he hath found it seems some simple Ninny in those rude times of old when high Bonnet were in fashion who gave some trust to his Writings according to which they shaped their Apophthegms and Mottos trapped and caparisoned their Mules and Sumpter-horses apparelled their Pages quarter'd their Breeches bordered their Gloves fring'd the Courtains and Vallens of their Beds painted their Ensigns composed Songs and which is worse placed many deceitful juglings and unworthy base tricks clandestinely amongst the chastest Matrons In the like darkness and mist of Ignorance are wrapped up these vain-glorious Courtiers and name-transposers who going about in their Impresa's to signifie Espoir hath portrayed a Sphere Birds Pens for Pins Ancholie for Melancholy A horned Moon or Cressant to shew the increasing of ones Fortune A Bench broken to signifie Bankrupt Non and a corslet for non dur habit otherwise non durabit it shall not last Vn lit san ciel for Vn licenciè which are Equivocals so absurd and witless so barbarous and clownish that a Fox's Tail should be pinned at his Back and a Fool 's Cap be given to every one that should henceforth offer after the restitution of Learning to make use of any such Fopperies in France By the same Reasons if Reasons I should call them and not Ravings rather might I cause paint a painer to signifie that I am in pain a Pot of Mustard that my Heart is much tardy one pissing upwards for a Bishop the bottom of a pair of Breeches for a Vessel full of Farthings a Codpiece as the English bears it for the Tail of a Cod-fish and a Dog's Turd for the dainty Turret wherein lies the Love of my Sweet-heart Far otherwise did heretofore the Sages of Aegypt when they wrote by Letters which they called Hieroglyphics which none understood who were not skilled in the Vertue Property and Nature of the Things represented by them Of which Orus Apollon hath in Greek composed two Books and Polyphilus in his Dream of Love set down more In France you have a taste of them in the Device or Impresa of my Lord Admiral which was carried before that time by Octavian Augustus But my little Skiff amongst these unpleasant Gulfs and Shoals will sail no further therefore must I return to the Port from whence I came yet do I hope one Day to write more at large of these things and to shew both by Philosophical Arguments and Authorities received and approved of by and from all Antiquity what and how many Colours there are in Nature and what may be signified by every one of them if God save the mould of my Cap which is my best Wine-pot as my Grandam said CHAP. X. Of that which is signified by the Colours White and Blew THe White therefore signifieth Joy Solace and Gladness and that not at random but upon just and very good Grounds Which you may perceive to be true if laying aside all prejudicate Affections you will but give ear to what presently I shall expound unto you Aristotle saith That supposing two things contrary in their kind as Good and Evil Vertue and Vice Heat and Cold White and Black Pleasure and Pain Joy and Grief And so of others if you couple them in such manner that the contrary of one kind may agree in reason with the contrary of the other it must follow by consequence that the other contrary must answer to the remanent opposite to that wherewith it is conferred as for examples Vertue and Vice are contrary in one kind so are Good and Evil if one of the contraries of the first kind be consonant to one of those of the second as Vertue and Goodness for it is clear that Vertue is good so shall the other two contraries which are Evil and Vice have the same connexion for Vice is evil This Logical Rule being understood take these two contraries Joy and Sadness then these other two White and Black for they are Physically contrary If so be then that Black do signifie Grief by good reason then should White import Joy Nor is this signification instituted by human Imposition but by the universal consent of the World received which Philosophers call Ius Gentium the Law of Nations or an uncontroulable right of force in all Countreys whatsoever for you know well enough that all People and all Languages and Nations except the ancient Syracusans and certain Argives who had cross and thwarting Souls when they mean outwardly to give evidence of their sorrow go in Black and all mourning is done with Black which general consent is not without some Argument and Reason in Nature the which every Man may by himself very suddenly comprehend without the Instruction of any and this we call the Law of Nature By vertue of the same natural Instinct we know that by White all the World hath understood Joy Gladness Mirth Pleasure and Delight In former times the Thracians and Grecians did mark their good propitious and fortunate days with white stones and their sad dismal and unfortunate ones with black is not the night mournful sad and melancholic it is black and dark by the privation of light doth not the light comfort all the World and it is more white than any thing else which to prove I could direct you to the book of Laurentius Valla against Bartolus but an Evangelical Testimony I hope will content you Mat. 7. it is said that at the transfiguration of our Lord Vestimenta ejus facta sunt alba sicut lux his apparel was made white like the light by which lightsom whiteness he gave his three Apostles to understand the Idea and figure of the eternal Joys for by the light are all Men comforted according to the Word of the old Woman who although she had never a tooth in her head was wont to say Bona lux and Tobit chap. 5. after he had lost his sight when Raphael saluted him answered What Ioy can I have that do not see the Light of Heaven In that colour did the Angels testifie the Joy of the whole World at the Resurrection of our Saviour Iohn 20. and at his Ascension Acts 1. with the like colour of Vesture did St. Iohn the Evangelist Apoc. 4.7 see the faithful Clothed in the Heavenly and Blessed Ierusalem Read the Ancient both Greek and Latin Histories and you shall find that the Town of Alba the first Patron of Rome was founded and so Named by Reason of a White Sow that was seen there You shall likewise find in those stories that when any Man after he had Vanquished his Enemies was by decree of the Senate to enter into Rome triumphantly he usually rode in
sufficienly dry already without being heated any further He went then to Monpellier where he met with the good Wives of Mirevaux and good jovial Company withal and thought to have set himself to the study of Physick but he considered that that Calling was too troublesome and melancholy and that Physicians did smell of Glisters like old Devils therefore he resolved he would study the Laws but seeing that there were but three scauld and one bald-pated Legist in that place he departed from thence and in his way made the Bridg of Gard and the Amphitheater of Neems in less than three hours which nevertheless seems to be more than mortal Man could do After that he came to Avignon where he was not above three days before he fell in love for the Women there take great delight in playing at the close Buttock-Game because it is Papal Ground which his Tutor Epistemon perceiving he drew him out of that place and brought him to Valence in the Dauphinee where he saw no great matter of Recreation only that the Lubbards of the Town did beat the Scholars which so incensed him with Anger that when upon a certain very fair Sunday the People being at their publick dancing in the Streets and one of the Scholars offering to put himself into the Ring the Bumkins would not let him whereupon Pantagruel taking the Scholar's part so belaboured them with Blows and laid such load upon them that he drove them all before him even to the Brink of the River Rhosne and would have there drowned them but that they did squat to the Ground and there lay close a full half League under the River The Hole is to be seen there yet After that he departed from thence and in three Strides and one Leap came to Angiers where he found himself very well and would have continued there some space but that the Plague drove them away So from thence he came to Bourges where he studied a good long time and profited very much in the Faculty of the Laws and would sometimes say that Law-Books were like a wonderful rich Cloth of Gold edg'd with Fur for in the World are no goodlier Books to be seen more ornate nor more eloquent than the Texts of the Pandects but the bordering of them that is to say the Gloss of Accursius is so vile mean and scandalous that it is nothing but Dirt and Excrement Going from Bourges he came to Orleans where he found store of sparkish Scholars that made him great Entertainment at his coming and with whom he learned to play at Tennis so well that he was a Master at that Game for the Students there are excellent at it And sometimes they carried him unto Cupid's Gardens there to recreate his Person at the Poussevant or In and In. As for breaking his Head with over-much study he had an especial care not to do it in any case for fear of spoiling his Eyes which he the rather observed for that one of the Regents there had often in his Lectures maintain'd that nothing could be so hurtful to the sight as to have sore Eyes So one day when a Scholar of his Acquaintance who had of Learning not much more than his Brethren tho instead of that he could dance very well and play at Tennis was made a Licentiate in Law he blazon'd the Licentiates of that University in this manner In his Hand is always a Racket Or else is his Hand in a Placket In a Dance he neatly can trip it And for Law it is all in his Tippet CHAP. VI. How Pantagruel met with a Limousin who affected to speak in learned Phrase UPon a certain day I know not when Pantagruel walking after Supper with some of his Fellow-Students without that Gate of the City through which we enter on the Rode to Paris encounter'd with a young spruce-like Scholar that was coming upon the same very way and after they had saluted one another asked him thus My Friend from whence comest thou now The Scholar answered him From the Alme inclyte and celebrate Academy which is vocitated Lutetia What is the meaning of this said Pantagruel to one of his Men It is answered he from Paris Thou comest from Paris then said Pantagruel and how do you spend your time there you my Masters the Students of Paris The Scholar answered We transfretate the Sequan at the Dilucul and Crepuscul we deambulate by the Compites and Quadrives of the Vrb we despumate the Latial Verbocination and like verisimularie amorabons we captat the Benevolence of the Omnijugal Omniform and Omnigenal Foeminine Sex upon certain Diecules we invisat the Lupanares and in a venerian extase inculcate our Veretres into the penitissime Recesses of the Pudends of these amicabilissim meretricules then do we cauponisate in the meritory Taberns of the Pineapple the Castle the Magdalene and the Mule goodly vervecine Spatules perforaminated with Petrocile and if by fortune there be Rarity or penury of Pecune in our Marsupies and that they be exhausted of ferruginean Metal for the shot we dimit our Codices and oppugnerat our Vestiments whilst we prestolate the coming of the Tabellaries from the Penates and patriotick Lares To which Pantagruel answered What devillish Language is this by the Lord I think thou art some kind of Heretick My Lord No said the Scholar for libentissimally assoon as it illucesceth any minutle slice of the Day I demigrate into one of these so well architected Minsters and there irrorating my self with fair lustral Water I mumble off little parcels of some missick Precation of our Sacrificuls and submurmurating my horary Precules I elevate and absterge my anime from its nocturnal Inquinations I revere the Olympicols I latrially venere the supernal Astripotent I dilige and redame my Proxims I observe the decalogical Precepts and according to the facultatule of my Vires I do not discede from them one late Vnguicule nevertheless it is veriform that because Mammona doth not supergurgitate any thing in my Loculs that I am somewhat rare and lent to supererrogate the Elemosynes to those Egents that hostially queritate their stipe Prut tut said Pantagruel what doth this Fool mean to say I think he is upon the forging of some diabolical Tongue and that Inchanter-like he would charm us To whom one of his Men said Without doubt Sir this Fellow would counterfeit the Language of the Parisians but he doth only flay the Latin imagining by so doing that he doth highly Pindarize it in most eloquent Terms and strongly conceiteth himself to be therefore a great Orator in the French because he disdaineth the common manner of speaking To which Pantagruel said Is it true The Scholar answered My worshipful Lord my Genie is not apt nate to that which this flagitious Nebulon saith to excoriate the Tuticle of our vernacular Gallick but viceversally I gnave opere and by vele and rames enite to locupletate it with the Latinicome redundance By G said
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
is there here a new World Sure said he it is never a jot new but it is commonly reported that without this there is an Earth whereof the Inhabitants enjoy the Light of a Sun and a Moon and that it is full of and replenished with very good Commodies but yet this is more ancient than that Yea but said I my Friend what is the Name of that City whither thou carriest thy Colworts to sell It is called Alpharage said he and all the Indwellers are Christians very honest Men and will make you good chear To be brief I resolved to go thither Now in my way I met with a Fellow that was lying in wait to catch Pigeons of whom I asked My Friend from whence come these Pigeons Sir said he they come from the other World Then I thought that when Pantagruel yawned the Pigeons went into his Mouth in whole Flocks thinking that it had been a Pigeon-House Then I went into the City which I found fair very strong and seated in a good Air but at my Entry the Guard demanded of me my Pass or Ticket whereat I was much astonished and asked them My Masters is there any Danger of the Plague here O Lord said they they die hard by here so fast that the Cart runs about the Streets Good God! said I and where whereunto they answered That it was in Larinx and Phaerinx which are two great Cities such as Rowen and Nantz rich and of great Trading and the Cause of the Plague was by a stinking and infectious Exhalation which lately vapoured out of the Abismes whereof there have died above two and twenty hundred and threescore thousand and sixteen Persons within this Seven night Then I considered calculated and found that it was a rank and unsavoury Breathing which came out of Pantagruel's Stomach when he did eat so much Garlick as we have aforesaid Parting from thence I pass'd amongst the Rocks which were his Teeth and never left walking till I got upon one of them and there I found the pleasantest Places in the World great large Tennis-courts fair Galleries sweet Meddows store of Vines and an infinite Number of Banqueting Summer Out-houses in the Fields after the Italian Fashion full of Pleasure and Delight where I stayed full four Months and never made better cheer in my Life as then After that I went down by the hinder Teeth to come to the Chaps but in the way I was robbed by Thieves in a great Forest that is in the Territory towards the Ears Then after a little further travelling I fell upon a pretty petty Village truly I have forgot the Name of it where I was yet merrier than ever and got some certain Money to live by can you tell how by Sleeping for there they hire Men by the Day to sleep and they get by it six Pence a Day but they that can snort hard get at least Nine-pence How I had been robbed in the Valley I informed the Senators who told me that in very truth the People of that side were bad Livers and naturally thievish whereby I perceived well that as we have with us the Countreys Cisalpine and Transalpine so have they there the Countreys Cidentine and Tradentine that is behither and beyond the Teeth but it is far better living on this side and the Air is purer There I began to think that it is very true which is commonly said that the one half of the World knoweth not how the other half liveth Seeing none before my self had ever written of that Country wherein are above five and twenty Kingdoms inhabited besides Deserts and a great Arm of the Sea I have composed a great Book intituled The History of the Gorgians because they dwell in the Gorge of my Master Pantagruel At last I was willing to return and passing by his Beard I cast my self upon his Shoulders and from thence slid down to the Ground and fell before him As soon as I was perceived by him he asked me Whence comest thou Alcosribas I answered him Out of your Mouth my Lord And how long hast thou been there said he Since the time said I that you went against the Almirods that is about six Months ago said he And wherewith didst thou live what didst thou drink I answered My Lord of the same that you did and of the daintiest Morsels that pass'd through your Throat I took Toll Yea but said he where didst thou shite In your Throat my Lord said I. Ha ha thou art a merry Fellow said he We have with the Help of God conquered all the Land of the Dipsodes I will give thee the Chastellein of Salmigoâ—din Grammercy my Lord said I you gratify me beyond all that I have deserved of you CHAP. XXXIII How Pantagruel became sick and the manner how he was recovered A While after this the good Pantagruel fell sick and had such an Illness in his Stomach that he could neither eat nor drink and because Mischief seldom comes alone he had got also the hot Piss which tormented him more than you would believe His Physicians nevertheless helped him very well and with store of Lenitives and diuretick Drugs made him piss away his Pain His Urine was so hot that since that time it is not yet cold and you have of it in divers Places of France according to the Course that it took and they are called the hot Baths as at Coderets at Limous at Dast at Ballervie at Nerie at Bourbonansie and elsewhere In Italy at Mongros at Appone at Sancto Petro de Padua at St. Helen at Casa Nuova At St. Bartolomee in the County of Boulogne at the Lorrette and a thousand other Places And I wonder much at a Rabble of foolish Philosophers and Physicians who spend their time in disputing whence the Heat of the said Waters cometh whether it be by reason of Borax or Sulphur or Allum or Saltpeter that is within the Mine for they do nothing but dote and better were it for them to rub their Arse against a Thistle than to waste away their time thus in disputing of that whereof they know not the Original for the Resolution is easy neither need we to enquire any further than that the said Baths came by a 〈◊〉 Piss of the good Pantagruel Now to tell you after what manner he was cured of his principal Disease I let pass how for a Minorative he took four hundred pound Weight of Colophoniack Scammonee six score and eighteen Cart-loads of Caffia eleven thousand and nine hundred pound Weight of Rubarb besides other confused Jumblings of sundry Drugs You must understand that by the Advice of the Physicians it was ordered that what did offend his Stomach should be taken away and therefore they made seventeen great Balls of Copper each whereof was bigger than that which is to be seen on the top of St. Peter's Needle at Rome and in such sort that they did open in the midst and shut with a Spring Into one of them
is to ejaculate the Moisture for the Propagation of Humane Progeny Least you should think it is not so be pleased but to contemplate a little the Form Fashion and Carriage of a Man exceeding earnestly set upon some Learned Meditation and deeply plunged therein and you shall see how all the Arteries of his Brains are stretched forth and bent like the String of a Cross-bow the more promptly dexterously and copiously to suppeditate furnish and supply him with store of Spirits sufficient to replenish and fill up the Ventricles Seats Tunnels Mansions Receptacles and Celluls of the common Sense of the Imagination Apprehension and Fancy of the Ratiocination Arguing and Resolution as likewise of the Memory Recordation and Remembrance and with great alacrity nimbleness and agility to run pass and course from the one to the other through those Pipes Windings and Conduits which to skilful Anatomists are perceivable at the end of the Wonderful Net where all the Arteries close in a terminating Point which Arteries taking their rise and origine from the left Capsul of the Heart bring through several Circuits Ambages and Anfractuosities the Vital to subtilize and refine them to the Aetherial Purity of Animal Spirits Nay in such a studiously musing Person you may espy so extravagant Raptures of one as it were out of himself that all his Natural Faculties for that time will seem to be suspended from each their proper charge and office and his exteriour Senses to be at a stand In a word you cannot otherways choose then think that he is by an extraordinary Extasie quite transported out of what he was or should be and that Socrates did not speak improperly when he said That Philosophy was nothing else but a Meditation upon Death This possibly is the reason why Democritus deprived himself of the Sense of Seeing prizing at a much lower rate the loss of his Sight than the diminution of his Contemplations which he frequently had found disturbed by the vagrant flying-out strayings of his unsetled and roving Eyes Therefore is it that Pallas the Goddess of Wisdom Tutress and Guardianess of such as are diligently studious and painfully industrious is and hath been still accounted a Virgin The Muses upon the same consideration are esteemed perpetual Maids and the Graces for the like reason have been held to continue in a sempiternal Pudicity I remember to have read that Cupid on a time being asked of his Mother Venus why he did not assault and set upon the Muses his Answer was That he found them so fair so sweet so fine so neat so wise so learned so modest so discreet so courteous so vertuous and so continually busied and employed One in the Speculation of the Stars another in the Supputation of Numbers the Third in the Dimension of Geometrical Quantities the Fourth in the Composition of Heroick Poems the Fifth in the jovial Interludes of a Comick Strain the Sixth in the stately Gravity of a Tragick Vein the Seventh in the Melodious Disposition of Musical Airs the Eighth in the compleatest manner of Writing Histories and Books on all sorts of Subjects and the Ninth in the Mysteries Secrets and Curiosities of all Sciences Faculties Disciplines and Arts whatsoever whether Liberal or Mechanick that apâ—proaching near unto them he unbended his Bow shut his Quiver and extinguished his Torch through meer shame and fear that by mischance he might do them some hurt or prejudice which done he thereafter put off the Fillet wherewith his Eyes were bound to look them in the Face and to hear their Melody and Poetick Odes There took he the greatest pleasure in the World that many times he was transported with their Beauty and pretty Behaviour and charmed asleep by the Harmony so far was he from assaulting them or interrupting their Studies Under this Article may be comprised what Hippocrates wrote in the aforecited Treatise concerning the Scythians as also that in a Book of his entituled Of Breeding and Production where he hath affirmed all such Men to be unfit for Generation as have their Parotid Arteries cut whose Situation is beside the Ears for the reason given already when I was speaking of the resolution of the Spirits and of that Spiritual Blood whereof the Arteries are the sole and proper Receptacles and that likewise he doth maintain a large portion of the Parastatick Liquor to issue and descend from the Brains and Back-bone Fifthly By the too frequent reiteration of the Act of Venery There did I wait for you quoth Panurge and shall willingly apply it to my self whilst any one that pleaseth may for me make use of any of the four preceding That is the very same thing quoth Fryar Ihon which Father Scyllino Prior of Saint Victor at Marseilles calleth by the Name of Maceration and taming of the Flesh. I am of the same Opinion and so was the Hermite of Saint Radegonde a little above Chinon for quoth he the Hermites of Thebaida can no more aptly or expediently macerate and bring down the Pride of their Bodies daunt and mortifie their leacherous Sensuality or depress and overcome the stubbornness and rebellion of the Flesh then by dufling and fanferluching it Five and twenty or Thirty times a day I see Panurge quoth Rondibilis neatly featured and proportioned in all the Members of his Body of a good temperament in his Humors well complexioned in his Spirits of a competent Age in an opportune Time and of a reasonably forward Mind to be married truly if he encounter with a Wife of the like Nature Temperament and Constitution he may beget upon her Children worthy of some Transpontine Monarchy and the sooner he marry it will be the better for him and the more conducible for his Profit if he would see and have his Children in his own time well provided for Sir my worthy Master quoth Panurge I will do it do not you doubt thereof and that quickly enough I warrant you Nevertheless whilst you were busied in the uttering of your Learned Discourse this Flea which I have in mine Ear hath tickled me more then ever I retain you in the Number of my Festival Guests and promise you that we shall not want for Mirth and Good Chear enough yea over and above the ordinary Rate And if it may please you desire your Wife to come along with you together with her She-Friends and Neighbours That is to be understood and there shall be fair Play CHAP. XXXII How Rondibilis declareth Cuckoldry to be naturally one of the Appendances of Marriage THere remaineth as yet quoth Panurge going on in his Discourse one small scruple to be cleared you have seen heretofore I doubt not in the Roman Standards S. P. Q. R. Si Peu Que Rien Shall not I be a Cuckold By the Haven of Safety cried out Rondibilis what is this you ask of me If you shall be a Cuckold My Noble Friend I am married and you are like to be so very speedily therefore be pleased