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.

CHAP. IX. The Colours and Liveries of Gar∣gantua.

GArgantua's Colours were White and Blew, as I have shewed you before, by which his Father would give us to understand, that his Son to him was a heavenly Joy, for the White did signifie Gladness, Pleasure,

Delight and Rejoicing, and the Blew, Cele∣lestial things. I know well enough, that in reading this you laugh at the old Toaper, and hold this Exposition of Colours to be very extravagant, and utterly disagreeable to reason, because White is said to signifie Faith, and Blew Constancy. But without moving, vexing, heating, or putting you in a chase (for the Weather is dangerous) an∣swer me if it please you; for no other compulsory way of arguing will I use to∣wards you, or any else; only now and then I will mention a word or two of my Bottle.

What is it that induceth you? What stirs you up to believe, or who told you that White signifieth Faith; and Blew Constancy? An old paultry Book, say you, sold by the hawking Pedlars and Balladmongers, En∣tituled, The Blason of Colours: Who made it? Whoever it was, he was wise in that he did not set his Name to it; I know not what I should rather admire in him, his Presumption, or his Folly. His Presumption, for that he should without Reason, without Cause, or with∣out any appearance of Truth, have dared to prescribe by private Authority, what things should be denoted and signified by the Co∣lour. Which is the Custom of Tyrants, who will have their Will to bear sway instead of Equity; and not of the Wise and Learn∣ed, who with the evidence of Reason satis∣fie their Readers.

His Folly and want of Wit, in that he thought, that without any other demonstra∣tion or sufficient Argument the World would be pleased to make his blockish and ridicu∣lous 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 Wri∣tings, according to which they shaped their Apophthegms and Mottos, trapped and capa∣risoned their Mules and Sumpter-horses, ap∣parelled their Pages, quarter'd their Breeches, bordered their Gloves, fring'd the Courtains and Vallens of their Beds, painted their En∣signs, composed Songs, and which is worse, placed many deceitful juglings, and unwor∣thy 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 Equivo∣cals 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 un∣derstood who were not skilled in the Vertue, Property and Nature of the Things repre∣sented 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, there∣fore 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 Au∣thorities, 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.