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
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
Head cut off was finely healed by Panurge and of the News which he brought from the Devils and damned People in Hell THis Gigantal Victory being ended Pantagruel withdrew himself to the place of the Flagons and called for Panurge and the rest who came unto him safe and sound except Eusthenes whom one of the Giants had scratched a little in the Face whilst he was about the cutting of his Throat and Epistemon who appeared not at all Whereat Pantagruel was so aggrieved that he would have killed himself But Panurge said unto him Nay Sir stay a while and we will search for him amongst the Dead and find out the truth of all Thus as they went seeking after him they found him stark dead with his Head between his Arms all bloody Then Eusthenes cried out Ah cruel Death hast thou taken from me the perfectest amongst Men At which words Pantagruel rose up with the greatest Grief that ever any Man did see and said to Panurge Ha my Friend the Prophecy of your two Glasses and the Javelin Staff was a great deal too deceitful But Panurge answered My dear Bullies all weep not one drop more for he being yet all hot I will make him as sound as ever he was In saying this he took the Head and held it warm fore-gainst his Cod-piece that the Wind might not enter into it Eusthenes and Carpalin carried the Body to the place where they had banqueted not out of any hope that ever he would recover but that Pantagruel might see it Nevertheless Panurge gave him very good comfort saying If I do not heal him I will be content to lose my Head which is a Fool 's Wager leave off therefore crying and help me Then cleansed he his Neck very well with pure White-wine and after that took his Head and into it synapised some Powder of Diamerdis which he always carried about him in one of his Bags Afterwards he anointed it with I know not what Ointment and set it on very just Vein against Vein Sinew against Sinew and Spondyle against Spondyle that he might not be Wry-necked for such People he mortally hated this done he gave it round about some fifteen or sixteen Stitches with a Needle that it might not fall off again then on all sides and every where he put a little Ointment on it which he called Resuscitative Suddenly Epistemon began to breath then opened his Eyes yawned sneezed and afterwards let a great Houshold-Fart Whereupon Panurge said Now certainly he is healed and therefore gave him to drink a large full Glass of strong White-wine with a sugred Toast In this Fashion was Epistemon finely healed only that he was somewhat hoarse for above three Weeks together and had a dry Cough of which he could not be rid but by the force of continual drinking And now he began to speak and said that he had seen the Devil had spoken with Lucifer familiarly and had been very merry in Hell and in the Elysian Fields affirming very seriously before them all that the Devils were boon Companions and merry Fellows but in respect of the Damned he said he was very sorry that Panurge had so soon called him back into this World again for said he I took wonderful delight to see them How so said Pantagruel because they do not use them there said Epistemon so badly as you think they do Their Estate and Condition of living is but only changed after a very strange manner For I saw Alexander the Great there mending old Stockins whereby he got but a very poor Living Xerxes was a Crier of Mustard Romulus a Salter and Patcher of Patins Numa a Nail-smith Tarquin a Porter Piso a clownish Swaine Sylla a Ferry-man Cyrus a Cowheard Themistocles a Glass-maker Epaminondas a Maker of Looking-glasses Brutus and Cassius Surveyors of Land Demosthenes a Vine-dresser Cicero a Fire-kindler Fabius a Threader of Patenotres Artaxerxes a Rope-maker Aeneas a Miller Achilles was a scauld-pated Maker of Hay-bundles Agamemnon a Lick-box Vlysses a Hay-mower Nestor a Forester Darius a Gold-finder Ancus Martius a Ship-trimmer Camillus a Foot-post Marcellus a Sheller of Beans Drusus a Taker of Money at the Doors of Play-houses Scipio Africanus a Crier of Lee in a Wooden-slipper Asdrubal a Lantern-maker Hannibal a Kettle-maker and Seller of Egg-shells Priamus a Seller of old Clouts Lancelot of the Lake was a Flayer of dead Horses All the Knights of the Round-table were poor Day-labourers employed to row over the Rivers of Cocytus Phlegeton Styx Acheron and Lethe when Messieurs the Devils had a mind to recreate themselves upon the Water as in the like Occasion are hired the Boat-men at Lions the Gondeâ—eers of Venice and Oars at London but with this Difference that these poor Knights have only for their Fare a Bob or Flirt on the Nose and in the Evening a Morsel of coarse mouldy Bread Trajan was a Fisher of Frogs Antoninus a Lacquey Commodus a Jeat-maker Pertinax a Peeler of Wall-nuts Lucullus a Maker of Rattles and Hawks-Bells Iustinian a Pedlar Hector a Snap-sauce Scullion Paris was a poor Beggar Camlyses a Mule-driver Nero a base blind Fidler Fierabras was his Serving-man who did him a thousand mischievous Tricks and would make him eat of the brown Bread and drink of the turned Wine when himself did both eat and drink of the best Iulius Caesar and Pompey were Boat-wrights and Tighters of Ships Valentine and Orson did serve in the Stoves of Hell and were Sweat-Rubbers in Hot-houses Giglan and Govian were poor Swineherds Iafrey with the great Tooth was a Tinder-maker and Seller of Matches Godfrey de Bullion a Hood-maker Iason was a Bracelet-maker Don Pietro de Castille a Carrier of Indulgences Morgan a Beer-brewer Huon of Bourdeaux a Hooper of Barrels Pyrrhus a Kitchin-scullion Antiochus a Chimney-sweeper Octavian a Scraper of Parchment Nerva a Mariner Pope Iulius was a Crier of Pudding-pies but he left off wearing there his great buggerly Beard Iohn of Paris was a Greaser of Boots Arthur of Britain an Ungreaser of Caps Pierce Forrest a Carrier of Faggots Pope Boniface the Eighth a Scummer of Pots Pope Nicholas the third a Maker of Paper Pope Alexander a Rat-catcher Pope Sixtus an Anointer of those that have the Pox. What said Pantagruel have they the Pox there too Surely said Epistemon I never saw so many there are there I think above a hundred Millions For believe that those who have not had the Pox in this World must have it in the other Cotsbody said Panurge then am I free for I have been as far as the Hole of Gibralter reached unto the outmost Bounds of Hercules and gathered of the ripest Ogier the Dane was a Furbisher of Armour The King Tigranes a Mender of thatched Houses Galien Restored a Taker of Moldwarps The four Sons of Aymon were all Tooth-drawers Pope Calixtus was the Barber of a Woman's sine quo non Pope Vrban a Bacon-pecker Melusina was a Kitchin Drudg-Wench Mettabrune a Laundress Cleopatra a
and calmest Port of any full of Repose Ease Rest Tranquility free from the Troubles and Sollicitudes of this tumultuous and tempestuous World then is it that they with alacrity Hale and Salute them Cherish and Comfort them and speaking to them lovingly begin even then to bless them with Illuminations and to communicate unto them the abstrusest Mysteries of Divination I will not offer here to confound your Memory by quoting antick Examples of Isaac of Iacob of Patroclus towards Hector of Hector towards Achilles of Polymnester towards Agamemnon of Hecuba of the Phodian renowned by Possidonius of Calanus the Indian towards Alexander the Great of Orodes towards Mezentius and of many others it shall suffice for the present that I commemorate unto you the learned and valiant Knight and Cavalier William of Ballay late Lord of Langcy who died on the Hill of Tarara the Tenth of Ianuary in the Climacterick year of his Age and of our Supputation 1543. according to the Roman Account The last three or four hours of his Life he did imploy in the serious utterance of a very pithy Discourse whilst with a clear Judgment and Spirit void of all Trouble he did foretell several important Things whereof a great deal is come to pass and the rest we wait for Howbeit his Prophesies did at that time seem unto us somewhat strange absurd and unlikely because there did not then appear any sign of efficacy enough to engage our Faith to the belief of what he did prognosticate We have hear near to the Town of Villomer a Man that is both Old and a Poet to wit Raminogrobis who to his Second Wife espoused my Lady Broadsow on whom he begot the fair Basoche it hath been told me he is a dying and so near unto his latter end that he is almost upon the very last moment point and article thereof repair thither as fast as you can and be ready to give an attentive Ear to what he shall chant unto you it may be that you shall obtain from him what you desire and that Apollo will be pleased by his means to clear your scruples I am content quoth Panurge let us go thither Epistemon and that both instantly and in all hast least otherways his Death prevent our coming Wilt thou come along with us Fryar Ihon Yes that I will quoth Fryar Ihon right heartily to do thee a Courtesie my Billy-ballocks for I love thee with the best of my Milt and Liver Thereupon incontinently without any further lingring to the way they all three went and quickly thereafter for they made good speed arriving at the Poetical Habitation they found the jolly Old Man albeit in the Agony of his Departure from this World looking chearfully with an open Countenance splendid Aspect and Behaviour full of alacrity After that Panurge had very civilly saluted him he in a free Gift did present him with a Gold Ring which he even then put upon the Medical Finger of his Left Hand in the Collet or Bezle whereof was inchased an Oriental Saphire very fair and large Then in imitation of Socrates did he make an Oblation unto him of a fair White Cock which was no sooner set upon the Tester of his Bed then that with a high raised Head and Crest lustily shaking his Feather-Coat he crowed Stentoriphonically loud This done Panurge very courteously required of him that he would vouchsafe to favour him with the Grant and Report of his Sence and Judgment touching the future Destiny of his intended Marriage For answer hereto when the honest Old Man had forthwith commanded Pen Paper and Ink to be brought unto him and that he was at the same Call conveniently served with all the three he wrote these following Verses Take or not take her Off or on Handy-dandy is your Lot When her Name you write you blot 'T is undone when all is done Ended e're it was begun Hardly Gallop if you Trot Set not forward when you Run Nor be single tho' alone Take or not take her Before you Eat begin to Fast For what shall be was never past Say unsay gainsay save your Breath Then wish at once her Life and Death Take or not take her These Lines he gave out of his own Hands unto them saying unto them Go my Lads in Peace the great God of the highest Heavens be your Guardian and Preserver and do not offer any more to trouble or disquiet me with this or any other Business whatsoever I have this same very day which is the last both of May and of me with a great deal of labour toyl and difficulty chased out of my House a rabble of filthy unclean and plaguily pestilentious Rake-hells black Beasts dusk dun white ash-coloured speckled and a foul Vermine of other hues whose obtrusive importunity would not permit me to die at my own ease for by fraudulent and deceitful pricklings ravenous Harpy-like graspings waspish stingings and such-like unwelcome Approaches forged in the Shop of I know not what kind of Insatiabilities they went about to withdraw and call me out of those sweet Thoughts wherein I was already beginning to repose myself and acquiesce in the Contemplation and Vision yea almost in the very touch and tast of the Happiness and Felicity which the good God hath prepared for his faithful Saints and Elect in the other Life and State of Immortality Turn out of their Courses and eschew them step forth of their ways and do not resemble them mean while let me be no more troubled by you but leave me now in silence I beseech you CHAP. XXII How Panurge Patrocinates and Defendeth the Order of the Begging Fryars PAnurge at his issuing forth of Raminagobris's Chamber said as if he had been horribly affrighted by the Vertue of God I believe that he is an Heretick the Devil take me if I do not he doth so villanously rail at the Mendicant Fryars and Iacobins who are the two Hemispheres of the Christian World by whose Gyronomonick Circumbilvaginations as by two Celivagous Filopendulums all the Autonomatick Metagrobolism of the Romish Church when tottering and emblustricated with the Gibble gabble Gibbrish of this odious Error and Heresie is homocentrically poysed But what harm in the Devil's Name have these poor Devils the Capucins and Minims done unto him Are not these beggarly Devils sufficiently wretched already Who can imagine that these poor Snakes the very Extracts of Ichthyophagy are not throughly enough besmoaked and besmeared with Misery Distress and Calamity Dost thou think Fryar Ihon by thy Faith that he is in the State of Salvation He goeth before God as surely damned to Thirty thousand baskets full of Devils as a Pruning-Bill to the lopping of a Vine-Branch To revile with opprobrious Speeches the good and couragious Props and Pillars of the Church is that to be called a Poetical Fury I cannot rest satisfied with him he sinneth grosly and blasphemeth against the true Religion I am very much offended at his scandalizing Words and
and Ordinances have been decreed made and instituted for the sole Benefit Profit and Advantage of the Flaminal Mists and mysterious Flamens and nothing at all for the good Utility or Emolument of the silly hood-winked married People which administreth unto others a sufficient Cause for rendring these Church-men suspicious of Iniquity and of an unjust and fraudulent manner of dealing no more to be connived at nor countenanced after that it be well weighed in the Scales of Reason than if with a reciprocal Temerity the Laicks by way of Compensation would impose Laws to be followed and observed by those Mysts and Flamens how they should behave themselves in the making and Performance of their Rites and Ceremonies and after what manner they ought to proceed in the offering up and immolating of their various Oblations Victims and Sacrifices seeing that besides the Edecimation and Tith-haling of their Goods they cut off and take Parings Shreddings and Clippings of the Gain proceeding from the Labour of their Hands and Sweat of their Brows therewith to entertain themselves the better Upon which Consideration in my Opinion their Injunctions and Commands would not prove so pernicious and impertinent as those of the Ecclesiastick Power unto which they had tendred their blind Obedience For as you have very well said there is no place in the World where legally a Licence is granted to the Children to marry without the Advice and Consent of their Parents and Kindred Nevertheless by those wicked Laws and Mole-catching Customs whereat there is a little hinted in what I have already spoken to you there is no scurvy mezely leprous or pocky Ruffian Pander Knave Rogue Skelm Robber or Thief pilloried whipped and burn-marked in his own Country for his Crimes and Felonies who may not violently snatch away and ravish what Maid soever he had a mind to pitch upon how noble how fair how rich honest and chaste soever she be and that out of the House of her own Father in his own Presence from the Bosom of her Mother and in the sight and despight of her Friends and Kindred looking on a so woful Spectacle provided that the Rascal Villain be so cunning as to associate unto himself some Mystical Flamen who according to the Covenant made betwixt them two shall be in hope some day to participate of the Prey Could the Goths the Scyths or Messagets do a worse or more cruel Act to any of the Inhabitants of a Hostile City when after the loss of many of their most considerable Commanders the expence of a great deal of Money and a long Siege they shall have stormed and taken it by a vioolent and impetuous Assault May not these Fathers and Mothers think you be sorrowful and heavy-hearted when they see an unknown Fellow a Vagabond Stranger a barbarous Lowt a rude Curr rotten fleshless putrified scraggy boily botchy poor a forlorn Caitif and miserable Snake by an open Rapt snatcht away before their own Eyes their so fair delicate neat well-behavioured richly provided for and healthful Daughters on whose Breeding and Education they had spared no Cost nor Charges by bringing them up in an honest Discipline to all the honourable and vertuous Employments becoming one of their Sex descended of a noble Parentage hoping by those commendable and industrious means in an opportune and convenient time to bestow them on the worthy Sons of their well-deserving Neighbours and ancient Friends who had nourished entertained taught instructed and schooled their Children with the same Care and Sollicitude to make them Matches fit to attain to the Felicity of a so happy Marriage that from them might issue an Off-spring and Progeny no less Heirs to the laudable Endowments and exquisite Qualifications of their Parents whom they every way resemble than to their Personal and Real Estates Moveables and Inheritances How doleful trist and plangorous would such a Sight and Pageantry prove unto them You shall not need to think that the Collachrymation of the Romans and their Confederates at the Decease of Germanicus Drusus was comparable to this Lamentation of theirs Neither would I have you to believe that the Discomfort and Anxiety of the Lacedemonians when the Greek Helen by the Perfidiousness of the Adulterous Trojan Paris was privily stollen away out of their Country was greater or more pitiful than this ruthful and deplorable Collugency of theirs You may very well imagine that Ceres at the Ravishment of her Daughter Proserpina was not more attristed sad noâ— mournful than they Trust me and your own Reason that the loss of Osyris was not so regreatable to Isis nor did Venus so deplore the Death of Adonis nor yet did Hercules so bewail the straying of Hylas nor was the Rapt of Polyxena more throbbingly resented and condoled by Pryamus and Hecuba than this aforesaid Accident would be sympathetically bemoaned grievous ruthful and anxious to the wofully desolate and disconsolate Parents Notwithstanding all this the greater part of so vilely abused Parents are so timerous and afraid of Devils and Hobgoblins and so deeply plunged in Superstition that they dare not gainsay nor contradict much less oppose and resist those unnatural and impious Actions when the Mole-catcher hath been present at the perpetrating of the Fact and a Party Contracter and Covenanter in that detestable Bargain What do they do then They wretchedly stay at their own miserable Homes destitute of their well-beloved Daughters the Fathers cursing the days and the hours wherein they were married and the Mothers howling and crying that it was not their fortune to have brought forth Abortive Issues when they hapned to be delivered of such unfortunate Girls and in this pitiful plight spend at best the remainder of their Time with Tears and Weeping for those their Children of and from whom they expected and with good reason should have obtained and reaped in these latter days of theirs Joy and Comfort Other Parents there have been so impatient of that Affront and Indignity put upon them and their Families that transported with the Extremity of Passion in a mad and frantick mood through the Vehemency of a grievous Fury and raging Sorrow have drowned hanged killed and otherways put violent hands on themselves Others again of that Parental Relation have upon the reception of the like Injury been of a more magnanimous and heroick Spirit who in imitation and at the Example of the Children of Iacob revenging upon the Sichemits the Rapt of their Sister Dina having found the Rascally Ruffian in the Association of his mystical Mole-catcher closely and in hugger-mugger conferring parlying and coming with their Daughters for the suborning corrupting depraving perverting and enticing these innocent unexperienced Maids unto filthy Lewdnesses have without any further Advisement on the matter cut them instantly into pieces and thereupon forthwith thrown out upon the Fields their so dismembred Bodies to serve for Food unto the Wolves and Ravens Upon the chivalrous bold and couragious Atchievement of a so valiant
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