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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
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Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57009	The works of F. Rabelais, M.D., or, The lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and Pantagruel with a large account of the life and works of the author, particularly an explanation of the most difficult passages in them never before publish'd in any language / done out of French by Sir Tho. Urchard, Kt., and others.	Rabelais, François, ca. 1490-1553?; Urquhart, Thomas, Sir, 1611-1660.	1694 (1694)	Wing R104; ESTC R29255	455,145	1,095

what may be blameable in this Book bears no proportion with the almost infinite number of admirable and useful Things which are to be found in it the Ingenious ought not to be deprived of it Lucian's works notwithstanding a Thousand Passages in them against Modesty and Religion have been handed down to us by the Primitive Christians which they would not have done had they not been sensible that they could do much more good than harm The Art of Writing has caused much Mischief which made the Ancients say that its Inventor had sown Serpent's Teeth yet who would be without the use of Letters We may as well cut out our Tongue that World of Wickedness as it is called in Scripture Weak Minds may turn good things to the worst use and even sacred Writings have produced ill Effects Readers are often more blameable than Authors and should like Bees gather Honey out of Poetical Flowers instead of sucking the Poison like Spiders The cause of the ill Actions of most Men is not in Books but in the wicked Disposition of their Hearts And the soft Melancholy with which the most chaste Romances often cloud the Mind thus making way for violent Passions is much more to be feared than a work of this Nature As long as those and some of our Plays are in the Hands of the weaker Sex that Catullus Ovid Iuvenal and Martial are learned by Heart in Schools by Men-Children and a thousand other Books more dangerous prostituted to the ignorant Vulgar Rabelais's Works in which there is more Morality as well as more Wit and Learning than in most that are read may be allowed a place among the Best Verbis offendi morbi aut imbecillitatis argumentum est saith Cicero And we may say for our Author like Ausonius Cui hic Ludus noster non placet ne legerit aut cum legerit obliviscatur Aut non oblitus ignoscat A learned and pious English Man who was a Bishop in France in the old Times and wrote almost as freely as Rabelais says Multitudinis imperitae non formido judicia meis tamen rogo parcant opusculis In quibus fuit propos●ti semper à nugis ad bona transire seria Solomon bids us not speak in the Ears of a Fool for he will despise the wisdom of our words A● our Author speaks to none of those his Book may be as useful as it is diverting provided as I have said that a Reader curb his Thoughts in some few Passages which a Man of Sense will easily do and I recommend it to no others PETER MOTTEUX At the end of the late French Edi●ions of Rabelais without the least reason the Dipsodes were said to be Lorains Fryar-Ihon was said to be Cardinal de Lorraine Gargantua was said to be Francis I. Grangousier was said to be Lo●is XII Great Mare of Gargantua Madam de Estampes Hertrippa a great Magician Hippothadeus the King's Confessor Lerné Bresse Loupgarou Amiens Pantagruel Henry II. Sybil of Panzoust a Court Lady Panurge Cardinal de Amboise Pichrocole Piedmont Salmygondin Benefices Theleme Protocole of the Council of Trent Xenomanes the Chancellor These are all the Names said to belong to these three Books and unjustly call'd a Key to them ERRATA In the Life and Preface PAge 4. l. 32 For near read to Page 22. l. 7. For laeus read laesus Page 38. l. 12. For Falsè read Salsè Page 56 which should be 57 Line 17. And our World with thy presence grace again read And with thy presence grace our World again A Familiar Epistle To Mr. Baldwin On his publishing the Translation OF RABELAIS WHat 's here Plain-dealing Rabelais come abroad Spruc'd up with Cost and in the newest Mode Dick art thou mad hast no Consideration Still playing ' th' honest Wight in thy Vocation And Printing dang'rous Truths to serve the Nation The Times need such a Satyrist you 'll Say As do's impartially about him lay And Rablais spares no Knave that comes in 's Way Dick thou meanst well and well thy Author meant He lash't the former Age but what 's th' Event Has Reformation of one Vice ensu'd No! Whipping makes old Lechers but more lewd Have public Cheats or private since been found To lose or Truth to get an Inch of Ground Thy Rabelais Quixot's hum'rous Author too Have done what ridiculing Wit cou'd do Have Vanity expos'd in true Grotesque But might as well have preach't as writ Burlesque Quevedo to the former Pair admit To make a great Triumvirate of Wit One Convert shew by what all Three have writ Is banish't Justice since to Earth arriv'd Religion or Morality reviv'd Havock in Field encroaching Tyrants make With Drum and Trumpet keep the World awake Repair to th' Hall and There the clam'rous Bar Presents you with another Scene of War As Conjur'd up by some infernal Charm Attornies Petti-foggers Pleaders swarm A Block-head must be fee'd and waited on For that Advice by which you are Undone While Plaintiff and Defendant madly strive Both Parties starve to make the Locusts thrive They who belong to th' Lott'ry of the Law Are only safe while Blanks the Clients draw Or Tell me is our Tribe of Quacks decreas'd Or less the Catalogue of the Deceas'd Are Bullets more destructive than the Pill Therefore Add Doctor to the Weekly-Bill Has Biggottry to make a Man turn Sot Or Priest-craft how to menage Fools forgot Or is not when a Pastor shifts his Place A fatter Benefice the Call of Grace Have ye ne'r seen a Drone possess at ease What would provide for Ten Industrious Bees The Plodding Citt grows Rich his graceless Son Turns Wit and Beau drinks whores and is is undone What Rank or Sex for Dick thou lov'st to speak The best of Matters their old Measures break How very Few quit their accustom'd Round That first do's others then Themselves confound Towns Countries are but Copies of each other One half 's Impertinence and what is t'other But Speech and Mode's refin'd Ay to our Cost Breeding's improv'd Integrity is lost Your humble Servant Sir The Courtiers Note That 's in plain English Sir I 'll cut your Throat Believe me Sir your Friend or y' are unjust An Ass you are if you believe or trust He calls you back Depend upon 't as done His next Words are The Credulous Coxcomb 's gone Say is the very Sphere of Learning free Still old Abuses reign and still we see Science made Cant and Nonsense Mystery Blind Form and Custom in the Van appear Of ev'ry Order Int'rest in the Rear Pimps Pandars Stallions Buffoons Parasites Setters Suborners Sharpers Pillory-Knights Cheats Cullies Bravoes Cowards Hypocrites This Spawn with more that of their Rank you 'll find Make half the Gallamaufry of Mankind Unjust or vain Desires our Minds employ But sensless Cares the Miser's Rest destroy Who fears to lose what he can ne'er enjoy Why starv'st thou Wretch I 'm Thrif●y and would save For whom For those will Piss upon the

them our diversion rather than attack them directly and with a Concern which they are not worthy to cause Ridiculum acri plenius ac melius magnas plerumque secat res says Horace 'T is true that those whose Temper enclines them to a Stoical Severity will not have the same taste and indeed rallying seldom or never become them but those who would benefit themselves by the perusal of Rabelais need not imitate his Buffoonry and it is enough if it inwardly move us and spread there such Seeds of Joy as will produce on all sorts of Subjects an infinite number of pleasant Reflections In those places that are most Dangerous a judicious Reader will curb his Thoughts and Desires considering that the way is slippery and thus will easily be safe with wise Refections moderating his Affections 'T is even better to drink some too strong Wines tempering them with Water which makes them but the more Pleasant then to confine our selves to flat and insipid Liquors which neither affect the Palate nor cheer us within The Roman Ladies us'd to view the Wrastlers naked in the Cirque and one of them discreetly said that a vertuos Woman was not more scandaliz'd at their Sight then at that of a Statue of which great numbers were naked in all Places Thus the sight of those Females at Sparta who danc'd naked being only covered with the publick honesty made no ill Impression on the Beholders We may pass over with as much ease the impurities of our Historian as we forgive to excellent Painters nudities which they too faithfully represent and we may only admire and fix our Eyes on the other parts of the Piece Omnia Sana Sanis The Wise can benefit themselves even by the worst of Books like those Ducks of Pontus to whom as Aulus Gellius says Poysons are ●ather wholsom than hurtful or those Bees of Pliny that being gifted by Nature with the Vertue of the Psylli could usefully feed on the juice and substance of the most venemous Weeds The Learned Iesuit who in favour of his Friend Balsac writ a Treatise against Burlesque cannot forbear granting as much since he says Scriptores nostri quovis e genere librorum etiam non optimorum aucupantur vtilitatem aliquam omnes undique stosculos delibant quo fere pacto princeps olim Poetarum legere se gemmas ex Enniano stercore dicebat The Age in which our Author wrote was not so reserv'd in Words as this and perhaps he has not so much followed his own Genius in making use of gross or loose expressions as he has endeavoured to accommodate his way of Writing to the Humour of the People not excepting a part of the Clergy of those Times Now we ought not to blame those Authors who wrote in former Ages for differing from us in several Things since they follow'd Customs and Manners which were then generally receiv'd though now they seem to us improper or unjust To discover all the Beauties in their Works we must a while lay aside the Thoughts of our Practice if it contradicts theirs otherwise all Books will be very short-liv'd and the best Writers being disheartned with the Thoughts of the speedy Oblivion or contempt of their Works will no longer strive to deserve an immortal Fame which fantastic Posterity would deny them Some would altogether forbid the perusal of our Author Du Verdier in his Biblioteque which gives an account of all those that had writ in French till about the Year 1585 has inserted a large invective made against Rabelais by an Author whom I have discovered to be Schoock These are his Words Vtinam vel apud illos sit Rabelesus cum suo Pantagruelismo ut scurrilis hominis scurrili voce abutar Certè si quid callet bonae artis cogatur in eas tandem se exercere alioqui tam impius homo quàm publicè suis nefariis libellis p●stilens c. Neque semel deploravi hominis sortem qui in tantâ literarum luce tam densis sese vi●icrum tenebris immergit Others principally of the Papist Clergy have not been more kind to him of which he himself complains in some places of his Book much like an Author whom he accuses of filching in his 1st Prologue 'T is Angelus Politian a famous Latin Poet who liv'd a little before him and was also a Priest and a Prebend he was a great admirer of Plautus whose perusal the Florentine Preachers would not allow in the Universities So partly on that account he expresses himself in these Terms Epist. Lib. 7. Sed qui nos damnant histirones sunt maximi Nam Curios simulant vivunt Bacchanalia Hi sunt praecipuè quidam clamosi leves Cucullati lignipedes cincti funibus Superciliosum incurvicervicum pecus Qui quod ab aliis ●abitu victu dissentiunt Tristique vultu vendunt sanctimonias Censuram sibi quandam Tyrannidem occupant Pavidamque plebem territant minaciis In which Verses by the way he has made use of a word which an ancient Critic also an admirer of Plautus mentions as Burlesque But to show that our Author's way of Writing is not of the kind of those which ancient Philososophers have condemn'd we need but consider that there is at least as much boldness and impurity in that very Plautus and the ancient Greek Comedy Yet Cicero whom all must grant to be a great Judge of good Writing and Morality speaking of the merry o● ridiculing way of writing which was to be condemn'd opposes to it that of Plautus the ancient Comedy and the Books of the Disciples of Socrates These are his Words Duplex omnino est jocandi genus Vnum ●●berale petulans flagitiosum obscaenum Alterum elegans urbanum ingeniosum facetum Quo genere non modo Plautus noster Atticorum antiqua comoedia sed etiam Philosophorum Socraticorum libri referti sunt After all as I could wish that some Expressions which I will not only call too bold and too free but even immodest and Prophane had not been in this Book I would not have those Persons to read it whose Lives are so well regulated that they would not employ a moment of which they might not give an account without Blushing nor those whose Minds not being ripened by Years and Study are most susceptible of dangerous Impressions Doubtless they may do much better than to read this Book Some therefore will think that either it was not to be Translated or ought to have been translated otherwise and that as in the most handsom Faces there is always some Line which we could wish were not there so if those things which here may shock some persons had been omitted or softned it would more justly and more generally have pleased I suppose that the Translator would have done so had he not been affraid to have taken out some Material Thing hid under the Veil of some unhappy Expression instead of taking away a bare Trifle But as

like a Boar which the Mongrel Mastiff-hounds have driven in and overthrown amongst the Toils What did they then All their Consolation was to have some Page of the said jolly Book read unto them And we have seen those who have given themselves to an hundred Punchions of old Devils in case that they did not feel a manifest Ease and Asswagement of Pain at the hearing of the said Book read even when they were kept in a Purgatory of Torment no more nor less than Women in Travail use to find their Sorrow abated when the Life of St. Margarite is read unto them Is this nothing find me a Book in any Language in any Faculty or Science whatsoever that hath such Virtues Properties and Prerogatives and I will be content to pay you a Chapine of Tripes No my Masters no it is peerless incomparable and not to be matched and this am I resolved for ever to maintain even unto the Fire exclusivè And those that will pertinaciously hold the contrary Opinion let them be accounted Abusers Predestinators Impostors and Seducers of the People It is very true that there are found in some noble and famous Books certain occult and hidden Properties in the number of which are reckoned Whippot Orlando furioso Robert the Devil Fierabras William without fear Huon of Bourdeaux Monteville and Matabrune but they are not comparable to that which we speak of And the World hath well known by infallible Experience the great Emolument and Vtility which it hath received by this Gargantuine Chronicle for the Printers have sold more of them in two Months time than there will be bought of Bibles in nine Years I therefore your humble Slave being very willing to increase your Solace and Recreations yet a little more do offer you for a Present another Book of the same stamp only that it is a little more reasonable and worthy of Credit than the other was for think not unless you wilfully will err against your Knowledg that I speak of it as the Jews do of the Law I was not born under such a Planet neither did it ever befal me to lie or affirm a thing for true that was not I speak of it like a jolly Onocrotarie I should say Preignotary of the martyrized Lovers and Croquenotarie of Love Quod vidimus testamur It is of the horrible and dreadful Feats and Prowesses of Pantagruel whose Menial Servant I have been ever since I was a Page till this hour that by his leave I am permitted to visit my Cow-Country and to know if any of my Kindred there be alive And therefore to make an end of this Prologue even as I give my self fairly to an hundred Panniers full of Devils Body and Soul Tripes and Guts in case that I lie so much as one single word in this whole History In like manner St. Anthony's Fire burn you Mawmet's Disease whirl you the Squinzy choke you Botches Crinckums sink you plumb down to Pegtrantums Plagues of Sodom and Gomorrah cram your pocky Arse with Sorrow Fire Brimstone and Pits bottomless swallow you all alive in case you do not firmly believe all that I shall relate unto you in this present Chronicle The Second Book of RABELAIS Treating of the Heroick Deeds and Sayings of the Good PANTAGRUEL CHAP. I. Of the Original and Antiquity of the Great Pantagruel IT will not be an idle nor unprofitable thing seeing we are at leasure to put you in mind of the Fountain and Original Source whence is derived unto us the good Pantagruel for I see that all good Historiographers have thus handled their Chronicles not only the Arabians Barbarians and Latines but also the gentle Greeks who were eternal Drinkers You must therefore remark that at the beginning of the World I speak of a long time it is above forty two Quarantains of Nights according to the supputation of the ancient Druids a little after that Abel was killed by his Brother Cain the Earth imbrued with the Blood of the Just was one Year so exceeding fertile in all those Fruits which it usually produceth to us and especially in Medlars that ever since throughout all Ages it hath been called the Year of the great Medlars for three of them did fill a Bushel In that Year the Calends were found by the Grecian Almanacks there was that Year noth●ng of the Month of March in the time of Lent and the middle of August was in May. In the Month of October as I take it or at least September that I may not err for I will carefully take heed of that was the Week so famous in the Annals which they call the Week of the three Thursdays for it had three of them by means of the irregular Bissextile occasioned by the Sun 's having tripped and stumbled a little towards the left hand like a Debtor afraid of Serjeants and the Moon varied from her Course above five Fathom and the●e was manifestly seen the Motion of Trepidation in the Firmament called Aplanes so that the middle Pleiade leaving her Fellows declined towards the Equinoctial and the Star named Spic● left the Constellation of the Virgin to withdraw her self tow●rds the Ballance which are Cases very terrible and Matters so hard and difficult that Astrologians cannot set their Teeth in them and indeed their Teeth had been pretty long if they could have reached thither However account you it for a Truth that every body did then most heartily eat of these Medlars for they were fair to the Eye and in Taste delicious But even as Noah that holy Man to whom we are so much beholden bound and obliged for that he planted to us the Vine from whence we have that nectarian delicious precious heavenly joyful and deifick Liquor which they call the Piot or Tiplage was deceived in the drinking of it for he was ignorant of the great Virtue and Power thereof So likewise the Men and Women of that time did delight much in the eating of that fair great Fruit but divers and very different Accidents did ensue thereupon for there fell upon them all in their Bodies a most terrible Swelling but not upon all in the same place for some were swollen in the Belly and their Belly strouted out big like a great Tun of whom it is written Ventrem Omnipotentem who were all very honest Men and merry Blades and of this Race came St. Fatgulch and Shrovetuesday Others did swell at the Shoulders who in that place were so crump and knobby that they were therefore called Montifers which is as much as to say Hill-carriers of whom you see some yet in the World of divers Sexes and Degrees Of this Race came Aesop some of whose excellent Words and Deeds you have in Writing Some other Puffes did swell in length by the Member which they call the Labourer of Nature in such sort that it grew marvellous long plump jolly lusty stirring and Crest-risen in the Antick fashion so that they made use of it as