François Rabelais

And about that time it was that all three Ps adopted turn-down collars and large, loose, artistic silk ties, which they tied very much on one side and wore with an air of defiance and a certain swashbuckling carriage.

And then there came the glorious revelation of that great Frenchman whom Mr. Polly called Rabelais.

The three Ps thought the birth feast of Gargantua the most glorious piece of writing in the world, and I'm not sure that they were wrong.

And on wet Sunday evenings, when there was the danger of hymn singing, they would get Parsons to read it aloud.

If everything is satisfactory, said the prospective employer.

Two.

A man whose brain devotes its hinterland to making odd phrases and nicknames out of ill-conceived words, whose conception of life is a lump of auriferous rock to which all the value is given by rare veins of unbusinesslike joy, who reads Boccaccio and Rabelais and Shakespeare with gusto, and uses Stortorius Shaver and Smart Junior as terms of bitterest opprobrium, is not likely to make a great success under modern business conditions.

Mr. Polly dreamt always of picturesque and mellow things, and had an instinctive hatred of the strenuous life.

Often the author's great carelessness and construction destroys, as though wantonly, the illusion produced by the truth of his descriptions and the naturalness of his conversations.

The immortal master of this school of desultory but ingenious and attractive storytellers, among whom Gogol is entitled to a high place, is Rabelais, who cannot be too much admired and studied, but to imitate whom nowadays would, I think, be dangerous and difficult.

In spite of the indefinable grace of his obsolete language, one can hardly read twenty pages of Rabelais in succession.

One soon wearies of this eloquence, so original and so eloquent, but the drift of which escapes every reader except some, Oedipuses like Leduc or Eloy Johanne.

Just as the observation of animalcule under the microscope fatigues the eye, so does the perusal of these brilliant pages tire the mind.

Possessed of a marvelous conciseness and clearness, it can with a single word call up several ideas, to express which in another tongue whole phrases would be necessary.

French, assisted by Greek and Latin, calling to its aid all its northern and southern dialects.

The language of Rabelais, in fact, is the only one which can convey any idea of this suppleness and this energy.

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Gargantua and Pantagruel, Book Four by François Rabelais.

Translated by Peter Anthony Motteux and John Ozell.

Front matter.

Now, my lads, as you hope for good health, cough once aloud with lungs of leather, take me off three swingeing bumpers, prick up your ears, and you shall hear me tell wonders of the noble and good Pantagruel.

End of section one, front matter.

Section one of Gargantua and Pantagruel, book four by François Rabelais, translated by John Ozell and Anthony Monteux.

This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, read by Thomas Copeland.

It must always be in the slang of the hour.

Some, writes the immortal translator of Rabelais in his preface, have deservedly gained esteem by translating, yet not many condescend to translate, but such as cannot invent, though to do the first well requires often as much genius as to do the latter.

I wish, reader, thou mayest be as willing to do the author justice as I have strove to do him right.

Many scholars have lamented the failure of Justus Lipisius to comment upon Petronius or edit an edition of the Satyricon.

The more one concentrates upon this author, the more apparent these faults become and the more one regrets the lacunae in the text.

Notwithstanding numerous articles which deal with this work, some from the pens of the most profound scholars, its author is still shrouded in the mists of uncertainty and conjecture.

He is as impersonal as Shakespeare, as aloof as Flaubert, in the opinion of Charles Whibley, and, it may be added, as genial as Rabelais.

An enigmatic genius whose secret will never be laid bare with the resources at our present command.

The two former are decidedly open to the charges of pedantry, artificiality, and heaviness.

there is a great surplice of words and a seeming inability to get to the point the heptameron if not equal in narrative vigour and lightness to boccaccio before and la fontaine afterwards is not in the least exposed to the charge of clumsiness of any kind employs a simple natural and sufficiently picturesque vocabulary avoids all verbiage and roundabout writing and both in the narratives and in the connecting conversation, displays a very considerable advance upon nearly all the writers of the time, except Rabelais, Marot, and Desperier, in easy command of the vernacular.

It is, therefore, not wonderful that there has, at different times, rather less of late years, but that is probably an accident, been a disposition, if not to take away from Margaret all the credit of the book, at any rate to give a share of it to others.' in so far as this share is attempted to be bestowed on ladies and gentlemen of her court or family there is very little evidence for it but in so far as the pen may be thought to have been sometimes held for her by the distinguished men of letters just referred to there is no reason why master francis himself should not have sometimes guided it and by others only less distinguished there is considerable internal reason to favour the idea at all times and in all places in france perhaps more than anywhere else kings and queens lords and ladies have found no difficulties we need not use the harsh voltairean carlylean phrase and say in getting their literary work buckwashed but in getting it pointed and seasoned trimmed and ornamented by professional men of letters the form of the tamaron lends itself more than any other to such assistance and while i should imagine that the setting with its strong colour both of religiosity and amorousness is almost wholly margaret's work i should also think it so likely as to be nearly certain that in some at least of the tales the hands of the authors of the simbolo mundi and the adolescence clementine of le masson and may have worked at the devising very likely reshaped and adjusted by the queen herself of the actual stories as we have them now the book as we have it consists of seven complete days of ten novels each and of an eighth containing two novels only the fictitious scheme of the setting is somewhat less lugubrious than that of the decameron but still not without an element of tragedy on the first of september when the hot springs of the pyrenees begin to enter upon their virtue a company of persons of quality assembled at côteret we are told and abode there three weeks with much profit but when they tried to return rain set in with such severity that they thought the deluge had come again and they found their roads especially that to the french side almost entirely barred by the gavre de bearn and other rivers so they scattered in different directions most of them taking the spanish side either along the mountains and across to roussillon or straight to barcelona and thence home by sea but a certain widow named made her way with much loss of men and horses to the abbey of notre dame de serence here she was joined by divers gentlemen and ladies who had had even worse experiences of travel than herself with bears and brigands and other evil things so that one of them longarine had lost her husband murdered in an affray in one of the cut-throat inns always dear to romance besides this disconsolate person and wazir the company consisted of a married pair hircan and parlamente two young cavaliers d'agoucin and saffredante two young ladies nomerfide and anna simontault a cavalier servant of parlamente and guéberon a knight older and discreeter than the rest of the company except oisille these form the party and it is to be noted that idle and contradictory as all the attempts made to identify them have been for instance the most confident interpreters hesitate between oisille and parlement an aged widow and a youthful wife for margaret herself it is not to be denied that the various parts are kept up with much decision and spirit of the men indeed hrcan is the only one who has a very decided character and is represented as fond of his wife parlamante but a decided libertine and of a somewhat rough and ruthless general character points which have made the interpreters sure that he must be henri the others except that geburon is as has been said older than his companions and that simontault sighs vainly after parlamente are merely walking gentlemen of the time accomplished enough but not individual The women are much more distinct, and show a woman's hand.

Oisille is, as our own seventeenth-century ancestors would have said, ancient and sober, very devout, regarded with great respect by the rest of the company, and accepted as a kind of mistress both of the revels and of more serious matters, but still a woman of the world, and content to make only an occasional and mild protest against tolerably free stories and sentiments.

Often the author's great carelessness in construction destroys, as though wantonly, the illusion produced by the truth of his descriptions and the naturalness of his conversations.

The immortal master of this school of desultory but ingenious and attractive storytellers, among whom Gogol is entitled to a high place, is Rabelais, who cannot be too much admired and studied, but to imitate whom nowadays would, I think, be dangerous and difficult.

in spite of the indefinable grace of his obsolete language one can hardly read twenty pages of rabelais in succession one soon wearies of this eloquence so original and so eloquent but the drift of which escapes every reader except some oedipuses like la ducasse or eloi johannu just as the observation of animalcule under the microscope fatigues the eye so does the perusal of these brilliant pages tire the mind possibly not a word of them is superfluous but possibly also they might be entirely eliminated from the work of which they form part without sensibly detracting from its merit the art of choosing among the innumerable details which nature offers us after all much more difficult than that of observing them with attention and recording them with exactitude the russian language which is as far as i can judge the richest of all the european family seems admirably adapted to express the most delicate shades of thought possessed of a marvellous conciseness and clearness it can with a single word call up several ideas to express which in another tongue whole phrases would be necessary french assisted by greek and latin calling to its aid all its northern and southern dialects the language of rabelais in fact is the only one which can convey any idea of this suppleness and this energy one can imagine that such an admirable instrument may exercise a considerable influence on the mind of a writer who is capable of handling it he naturally takes delight in the picturesqueness of its expressions just as a draughtsman with skill and a good pencil will trace delicate contours an excellent gift no doubt but there are few things which have not their disadvantages elaborate execution is a considerable merit if it is reserved for the chief parts of a work but if it is uniformly lavished on all the accessory parts also the whole produces i fear a monotonous effect i have said that satire is in my opinion the special characteristic of gogol's talent he does not see men or things in a bright light that does not mean that he is an unfaithful observer but his descriptions betray a certain preference for the ugly and the sad elements in life doubtless these two disagreeable elements are only too easily found and it is precisely for that reason that they should not be investigated with insatiable curiosity we would form a terrible idea of russia of holy russia as her children call her if we only judged her by the pictures which gogol draws His characters are almost entirely confined to idiots or scoundrels who deserve to be hung.

It is a well-known defect of satirists to see everywhere the game which they are hunting, and they should not be taken too literally.