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.

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 Pan∣tagruel, 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 re∣serv'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 Lan∣guage

in which it is writ, be not easily un∣stood now by those who only converse with modern French Books, yet it has been re∣printed several Times lately in France and Hol∣land, 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 disappo••ntment; of which we have Instances when we read Chau∣cer, and other Books, which we do not throughly understand.

Sir Thomas Vrwhart has avoided that ob∣scurity in this following Translation of Rabe∣lais, so that most English Readers may now understand that Author in our Tongue, bet∣ter then many of the French can do in theirs. To do him justice it was necessary, that a Per∣son not only Master of the French, but also of much Leasure and Fancy should under∣take the Task. The Translator was not on∣ly happy in their things, but also in being a learned Physitian, and having, besides, some French Men near him, who understood Rabe∣lais 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 Au∣thor in English, there were some Verses by Men of that Nation in praise of his Transla∣tion.

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 pre∣vented 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 Linguist, but also de∣servedly famous for his ingenious and learned Composures, was lately pleased to revise it, as well as the two first which had been pub∣lish'd about thirty years ago, and are extream∣ly 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 possi∣ble, neither affecting the politeness of the most nice and refin'd of our Modern English Wri∣ters, nor yet the roughness of our antiqua∣ted Authors, but such a Medium as might

neither shock the Ears of the fi••st, nor dis∣please those who would have an exact imita∣tion 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; 'Tis 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 be∣fore 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 wan∣ted, though never till now publish'd in any Language.

THE ingenious of our Age, as well as those who liv'd when Rabelais com∣pos'd his Gargantua and Pantagruel, have been extreamly desirous of discovering the Truths which are hid under the dark veil of Allego∣ries 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 distin∣guish'd in the Kingdom of France by their Quality and Employments, and without doubt he, who was the best of all our Mo∣dern 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 ri∣diculous, 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 pow∣erful; 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 ex∣plain 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, 'twas 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 preten∣ded 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 Gran∣gousier, 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 Pro∣logue 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; My∣steries, 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 di∣stinguish 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 Vto∣pia.

Secondly, Gargantua is not born in the King∣dom 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 39th. 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 af∣ter they had well supp'd, and left their good Ma∣ster 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, like∣wise

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 diffi∣culty lyeth not there, we ought to show▪ who are the Princes that are hid under the Names of Grangousier, Gargantua and Panta∣gruel, 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 know where to fix. This must be granted; yet 'tis not an impossible thing; and if we can but once unmark Panurge, who is the ridiculous Hero of the Peece, we may soon guess by the Servant, and the Air and Figure of his Ma∣ster, who Pantagruel is,

We find these four Characters in Panurge,

1. He is well skill'd in the Greek Hebrew and Latin Tongues, he speakes High and Low Dutch, Polish, Spanish, Portuguese, English, Italian, &c.

2. He is learned, understanding, politic, sharp, cunning, and deceitful in the highest Degree.

3. He publicly professes the Popish Religi∣on, tho he in reality laughs at it, and is nothing less than a Papist.

4. His chief Concern next to that of Eat∣ing is a Marriage, which he has a desire, yet is affraid to contract, least he should meet with his Match; that is, a Wife even as bad as himself.

I do not know if those who, by the preten∣ded Key, have been induc'd to believe that Panurge was the Cardinal of Amboise in a Dis∣guise, have been pleased to observe these four qualities; but I am sure that nothing of all this can be applyed to that Prelate, unless it be, that in general he was an able Minister of State. But all four were found in Iohn de Montluc Bishop of Valence and Die, who was the eldest Brother of the Marschal de Montluc the most violent Enemy which the Hugo∣nots had in those Days.

1. Historians assure us, that he understood the Eastern Tongues, as al∣so the Greek and the Latin,* 1.1 the best of any Man in his time; and in sixteen Embas∣sies, to many Princes of Eu∣rope, to whom he was sent in Germany, Eng∣land, Scotland, Poland, Constantinople, he doubtless learn'd the living Tongues which he did not know before.

2. He gain'd a great Reputation in all those Embassies, and his Wit, his Skill, his Penetration and his Prudence, in observing a Conduct that contented all Persons, were u∣niversally admired. But he even out did

himself in the most difficult of all those Em∣bassies, which was that of Poland, to the Throne of which Kingdom he caus'd Henry de Valois Duke of Anjou, to be rais'd in spight of the difficulties, which the Massacre of Paris that was wholly laid to his Charge in Poland (he having been one of the chief Pro∣moters of it) created concerning his Election. His Toils and his happy Success in those im∣portant Negotiations, caus'd him to take this Latin Verse for his Motto,

Quae Regio in terris nostri non plena laboris?

3. The whole Kingdom of France, and particularly the Court, knew that he was a Calvinist, and he himself did not make a Mystery of it, as appears by his preaching their Doctrin once before the Queen,* 1.2 in a Hat and Cloak, after the manner of the Cal∣vinists, which caus'd the Constable of Mon••morency to say aloud, Why do not they pull that Minister out of the Pulpit? Nay he was even condemn'd by Pius IV. as an He∣retick, but that Pope having not assigned him Judges in partibus according to the Laws of the Kingdom, he kept his Bishoprick, and the Dean of Valence, who had accused him of being a Calvinist, not being well able to make good his Charge, Montluc, who had mighty

Friends, caus'd him to be punish'd for it; also after his Death, his Contract of Marriage with a Gentlewoman call'd Anne Martin was found, yet he still kept in the Roman Church, and still enjoy'd the Revenues of his Bishop∣rick, as if he had been the most bigotted Papist in that Kingdom. The Considerations that kept him from abjuring solemnly the er∣rors of the Church of Rome were, that Calvin let him know, that according to his Refor∣mation, there could be no Bishops; he own'd that this Obstacle would not perhaps have hinder'd him from leaving that Communion, could his Kitchin have follow'd him in the o∣ther; excepting that, he was altogether for a Reformation, and in all things favour'd 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Professors, and 'tis what Rabelais has observ'd when he makes him conclude all his Discour∣ses in many Languages, with saying, that Venter famelicus auriculis carere dicitur; at this time,* 1.3 I am in a very urgent necessity to feed, my Teeth are sharp, my Belly empty, my Throat dry, and my Stomach fierce and burning; all is ready, if you will but set me to work, it will be as good as a Balsamum for sore Eyes, to see me guleh and raven it; for God's sake give order for it.

4. His chief Concern, next to that of living plentifully, was that of his Marriage, and as we have observed, he Married, and had a Son whom he own'd, and who was after∣wards

legitimated by the Parliament; 'tis the same who is famous in History by the name of Balagny, and who was afterwards Prince of Cambray: his Father caus'd him to be sent into Poland, concerning the Duke of Anjou's Election, of which we have spoke, and he was very serviceable to that Duke in it. Now, 'tis that Marriage of the Bishop of Valence, that so much perplexes him by the name of Panurge, in Rabelais's third Book, and which is the occasion of Pantagruel's Voy∣age to the Holy Bottle in the fourth and fifth.

'Tis much to be admired how a Bishop, that openly sided with the Calvinists, who was also a Monk, yet marryed, and living with his Wife whom he had regularly wed∣ded, could enjoy one of the best Bishopricks in France, and some of the chief Employ∣ments at Court. He must doubtless have been extreamly cunning, and have had a very particular Talent to keep those envied posts in the Church and State, in spight of all those disavantages, in the midst of so many storms rais'd against him and the Re∣formation, by Enemies that had all the Forces of the Kingdom in their Power, and could do whatever they pleased.

This Prudence and Craftiness is described to the Life by our Author, when he makes Panurge relate, how he had been broach'd upon a Spit by the Turks, all larded like a Rab∣bet,

and in that manner was roasting alive; when calling on God, that he might deliver him out of the pains wherein they detained him for his sincerity in the maintenance of his Law, the Turn-spit fell asleep by the Divine Will; and Panurge having taken in his Teeth a Fire-brand by the end where it was not burn'd, cast it into the Lap of his Roaster; with another set the House on Fire, broach'd on the Spit the Turkish Lord who design'd to de∣vour him, and at last got away, though pur∣sued by a great number of Dogs, who smelt his leacherous half roasted Flesh; and he threw the Beacon, with which he had been larded, a∣mong them.

'Tis observable, that there he exclaims a∣gainst the Turks about their abstaining from Wine, which perhaps may refer to the Church of Rome's denying the Cup in the Eucharist to the Laity, at which particularly Montluc was offended. To lard a Man is a Meta∣phor often us'd by the French, to signifie, to accuse and reproach, and so he was even before he had his Bishoprick; throwing 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.* 1.4 The Specta∣cles, which afterward he wore on his Cap,

may signify the Caution which he was always oblig'd to take to avoid a surprise,* 1.5 and his having a Flea in his Ear, in French signifies the same. His forbearing to wear any lon∣ger 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 Lai∣ty; 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 dis∣covered, that cannot properly belong to any other, may help us to know not only Pantagruel, to whom he had devoted him∣self, 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 Margue∣rite 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 Gargan∣tua: 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,* 1.6 preach'd publickly at Paris by her direction, upon which a fierce Per∣secution ensued. Her Learning, and the A∣greableness of her Temper were so extra∣ordinary as well as her Vertue, that she was sti••••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 No••••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 re∣served in their writings than we are gene∣rally in this, they were not more remiss in their Actions. Among many Epitaphs, She was honour'd with that which follow••.

Quae fui exemplum coelestis nobile form••••, In quam tot laudes, tot co••ere bona, Margareta sub hoc tegitur Valesia saxo. I, nunc at{que} 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 de∣sires 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 wea•• 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;* 2.1 Me∣thinks I understand him, said Panta∣gruel; 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 des∣daignez algarou, &c.

Besides, Gargantua, who is King of Vto∣pia, 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. Vasat••••. I might add, That Grangousier is described as one that was well furnish'd with H••ms of Bayonne, Sawsages of Bigorre▪ and Rouargue,* 2.2 &c. but none of Bolonia; for he fear'd the Lombard B••osone (or poison'd Bit, the Pope being indeed his Enemy.) We are told, that he could not endure the Spa∣niards, and mention is made also by Grangousier,* 2.3 of the Wine that grows, not, says he, in Britany,* 2.4 but in this good Country of Verron, which seems to be Bearn. I might in∣stance more of this; but as I know how little we ought to rely upon likeness of Names to find out Places and Colonies, I will only insist upon the word Vtopia, which is the name of Grangousier's Kingdom, and by which the Author means Navarre, of which Gargantua was properly only Titular King, the best part of that Kingdom with Pam∣pelune, its capital City, being in the King of Spain's Hands: So that State was, as it were, no more on Earth as to any benefit he en∣joyed by it; and 'tis what the Word Vtopia, from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, signifies, viz. that is not found, or, a place not to be found. We have therefore here four Actors in the Pan∣tagruelian

F••rce, three Kings of Navarre and the Bishop of Valence bred up and rais'd in that House; we might add two Person•• mutae, Catherine de Foix Queen of Navarre matried to Iohn d' Albret, and she therefore should be Gargam••ll••, as Margaret de Valois mar∣ried to his Son Henry King of Navarre should be Badebec.

Picrochole is doubtless the King of Spain, who depriv'd Iohn d' Albret of that part of Navarre which is on the side of the Pyrene•••• Mountains that is next to Spain. This ap∣pears by the name of Picrochole, and by the universal Monarchy, of which he thought himself secure.

The word Picrochole is made up of two, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 bitter, and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 choler, bile or gaul, to denote the Temper of that King, who was nothing but Bitterness and Gaul. This doubly fits Charles the Fifth, first with Rela∣tion to Francis the First, against whom ••he conceived an immortal hatred; and to Henry d' Albret, whose Kingdom he possess'd and whom he lull'd with the hopes of a Restitu∣tition which he never design'd; which was one of the chief Causes of the War that was kindled between that Emperor and Charles the Fifth, which lasted during both their Reigns. Besides, Charles the Fifth was troubled from time to time with an over∣flowing of Bile; so that finding himself de∣caying, and not likely to live much longer,

after he had raised the siege of Mets, as he had done that of Marseille before, being commonly as unfortunate as his Generals were successful, he shut himself up in a 〈◊〉〈◊〉, where that distemper was the chief Cause of his Death. The hope of 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Monarchy, with which that Empe∣ror flatter'd himself was a Chimaera that possess'd his mind till he resign'd his Crown, and which he seem'd to have as∣sign'd with it, to Philip the II▪ his Son and Successors.

This Frenzy, which in his Thirst of Empire possessed him wholly,* 2.5 is very pleasantly ridicul'd by Rabelais. The Duke of Small Thrash, The Earl Swa••••••-Buckler, and Captain 〈◊〉〈◊〉 make Picrochole (in Rodomontados) con∣quer Tall the Nations in the Universe. I suppose that our Satyrist means by these three some Grandees of Spain▪ for, their King Picrochole bids them be cover'd. After many imaginary Victories, they speak of erecting two Pillars, to perpetuate his Memory, at the Streights of Gibraltar; by which he ridicules Charles the V.'s Devise which was two Pillars with plus Vltra for the Moto: Then they make him go to 〈◊〉〈◊〉 and Algier, (which Charles the V. did) march to Rome and cause the Pope to dye for Fear, whereat Picrochole is pleased, be∣cause he will not then kiss his Pyantoufle,

and longs to be at Loretto. Accordingly we know that in 1527 his Army had taken Rome by storm, plundered it and its Churches, ravished the Nuns if any would be ravished, and having almost starved the Pope, at last took him Prisoner, which Actions of a Catholic Kings Army, Sandoval a Spanish Author, only terms opra non Santa. Then Picrochole fancying himself Master al∣ready of so many Nations, most royally gratifies those who so easily made him Con∣quer them; to this he gives Caramania, Suria to that, and Palestine to the third; till at last a wise old Officer speaks to him much as Cyneas did to Pyrrhu••, and with as little Success as that Philosopher.

As it was not our Author's Design to to give us a regular History of all that happened in his Time, he did not tye himself up to Chronology, and sometimes joyn∣ed Events which have but little Relation to each other. Many times also the Cha∣racters are double, as perhaps is that of Pi∣crochole. In the Menagiana lately published, which is a Collection of Sayings, Reparties and Observations by the learned Menage, every one of them attested by Men of Leaning, and Credit, we are told that Messieurs de Sainte Marthe have told him, that the Picrochole of Rabelais was their Grand Father, who was a Physician at Fron••evaut. These M••de St. Marthe are the worthy Sons of the famous Samarthanus,

who gave so high a Character of Rabelais among the most celebrated Men of France, and who themselves have honour'd his Letters with large Notes, and shew'd all the Marks of the greatest respect for his Memory; so that I am apt to believe that they would not fix such a Character on their Grand-father, had there not been some Grounds for it. Much less would they have said this to Mon∣sieur Menage, who doubtless understood Ra∣belais very well, since I find by the Catalogue of his Works in Manuscript, that he has written a Book of Observations on Rabelais, which I wish were Printed; for they must doubtless be very curious; no less ought to be expected from that learned Author of the O∣rigines de la Languo Francoise, and of the Ori∣gini della Lingua Italiana, as also of the curi∣ous Observations on the Aminta of Tasso, not to speak of his Diogenes Laertius, and many others. As he was most skill'd in Etymo∣logies, and a Man of the greatest Reading and Memory in France, he had doub••less made too many discoveries in our Author, to have believ'd what Messieurs Sainte Marthe said to him, were, there not some Grounds for it. We may then suppose that Rabelais had the wit so to describe pleasant incidents that past a∣mong Men of Learning, or his Neighbours in and near Chinon, as that at the same time, some great Acti••••, in Church or State should be represented or satiriz'd; just as Monsieur

De Benserade, in his Verses for the solemn Masks at the French Court has made his King, representing Iupiter, say what equally might be said of that Heathen God, or of that Monarch.

Thus the Astrea of the Lord D'urfe, which has charm'd all the ingenious of both Sexes, and is still the admiration of the most know∣ing, meerly as a Romance, has been disco∣ver'd long ago by some few, to have through∣out it a foundation of Truth. But as it only contains the private Amours of some Per∣sons of the first quality in that Kingdom, and even those of its noble Author, he had so disguis'd the Truths which he describes, that few had the double pleasure of seeing them reconcil'd to the ou••ward Ficti∣ons;* 2.6 till among the Works of the greatest Orator of his time, the late Monsieur Patru of the French Academy, they had a Key to a part of that incomparable pasto∣ral, which he says he had from its Author: And none that have known Patru, or read his Works or Boileau's, will have any reason to doubt of what he says. He tells us, that the Au∣thor of Astrea to make his Truths more agreeable, has interwove them, with mere ficti∣ons, which yet are generally only the Veils that hide some Truths, which might otherwise not so properly appear in such •• Work; some∣times he gives as a part of the chief In∣treague

of a Person, such Actions as that Person transacted at another time, or on another occasion; and on the other side, he sometimes divides one History, so that under different Names still he means but one Person; thus Diana and Astrea, Celadon and Silvander are the same.

We ought not to forget that Barclay in his Argenis which is the history of France, in Henry the IV. 's time, does the same; Polyarchus and Archombrotus being but one.

As in Astrea when two Lovers marry the Author only means, that they love each other; so when in ours, Panurge de∣sires to marry and consults about it, we may suppose him already married and affraid of being prosecuted about it.

And if our Author has changed the Places and Order of Times, and set before what should go after, and that last which should have been first, 'tis no more than what the judicious Patru allows to his, as a thing, says he, that it always used in all those sorts of Works; and thus he makes that last, but six Months which held out fifteen Years and with him Chartres in France, and Malta are but one.

Rabelais, who had more reason to write mystically than any, may then be allowed equal Freedom in his Allegories; and with∣out fixing only the Character of Picrochole, on Charles the V we may believe that it

refers as well to his Predecessor, 〈◊〉〈◊〉 King of Arragon, and of Cas••ile my Queen Isabella his Wife; that deprived Iohn d' Albret of his kingdom of Navarre; for that Spaniard was as bitter an Enemy, as cunning, and at least as fa••al to the house of Navarre, as his Successor.

Iohn d' Albret was an open hearted, magni∣ficent, generous Prince; but easie, and ••ely∣ing wholly on hi•• Ministers, being given to his Pleasures, which often consisted in going privately to eat and drink with his Subjects, and inviting himself to their Houses; howe∣ever he lov'd Books, and was a great lover of Herald••y, nicely observing the Pedigrees, Coats and Badges of Honour of Families, which perhaps makes Rabelais open his Scene▪ with refering us to the great Pantagruelian Chronicle (by which he begins his second Book) for the knowledge of that Genealogy and Antiquity of Race, by which Gargantua is de∣scended to us, how the Giants were born in this World, and how from them by a direct Line issued Gargantua; then he bids us not take it ill, if he for the present passes it by, though the Subject be such, that the oftner it were remem∣bred, the more it will please your Worships▪ by which he exposes that Prince's and some Gentlemen's continual Application to a vain Search, into the dark and fabulous Times for Pedigrees, as Rabelais says, from the Gyants▪ for many would be deriv'd from something greater than Man. Then he makes his King••

Gyants, because they are so in Power, and sometimes what serves the whole Court and attendants is by him applyed wholly to the King▪ as Eating, Cloathing, Strength. And then by that he ridicules the Romances of those days, where Giants are always brought in, as well as Magicians, Witches, sin∣gle Men routing whole Armies, and a thousand other such fabulous Stories. He has also ri∣dicul'd the variety of doubtful, though ancient Originals, in the odd discovery of the Ma∣nuscript; and in the 9. Chap. the distinction of Colours and Liveries, which took up that Prince's time, due to higher Imployments, as worthily as the rest of Heraldry. There he tells us, that Gargantua's Colours or Liveries were white and blew, by which his Father would give to understand, that his Son was to him a Heaven∣ly Ioy. Thence with as much Fancy as Judgment, he takes an Opportunity to laugh at the lame and punning Devises or Impreses of those Days, in which however, Paul Iove had already given Rules to make better; yet after all, I believe that by Gargantua's Co∣lours, Rabelais also alludes to K. Henry d' Albret, and Marguerite his Queen, who were sincerely for a Reformation; so the White may signifie Innocence, Candor and Sincerity, and the Blew, Piety or Heavenly Love. Perhaps also as * 2.7 Godefroy d Estissac Bi∣shop of Maillezais in his Coat, gave paled Argent and Azur of

six Pieces, he had a mind to celebrate the co∣lours of his Patron.

The account of Gargantua's youthful Age, Chap. 11. agrees very well with that which Historians give us of the way of bringing up Henry IV. of France,* 2.8 by his Grand-father, Henry d' Albret, who is the same with Gargantua That great Mo∣narch was in his tender age inur'd by that old Prince to all sorts of Hardships, for he caus'd him to be kept in the Country, where he or∣der'd they should let him run among the poor Country Boys, which the young Prince did, sometimes without Shoos or Hat, being fed with the coursest fare; so that having by those means contracted a good habit of Body, he was afterwards so hardned to Fatigues, so Vigilant and active, and so easily pleased with the most homely Dier, that it did not a little contribute to the advantage which he had over the League, whose Chief the Duke de Mayenne was of a Disposition altogether different. Now, 'tis very probable that Henry d' Albert was himself brought up much after the manner which he chose for his Grand-son; for we read that he was not only an ingeni∣ous and understanding Prince, generous and liberal even to Magnificence, but also very warlike and hardy.

The Education of Gargantua, by the So∣phisters is a Satyr on those Men,* 2.9 and the tedious Methods of the Schools, shewing the little improvement that was made in Henry d' Albret's Studies, as long as he was under Popish Governors, and the ill Life that the young Gentlemen of the Roman Church led; as on the contrary, the benefit of having good Tutors, and the difference between the Romans and the Protestants,* 2.10 carefully and pi∣ously educated at the Dawn of the Reforma∣tion; for there is no doubt, that tho Henry d' Albret did not dare to profess it, the Peo∣ple in Navarre, being all Papists, and there being obstacles enough to the recovery of that Kingdom, lost by his Father, without raising more, yet he heartily hated the Popish Prin∣ciples, and the King of Arragon and Castille, who merely on the pretence of Iohn d' Al∣bret's alliance with Lewis XII. at the time of his Excommunication, had seiz'd his Country and held it by the Pope's Gift; so we find that the Reformers no sooner preach'd against Bulls and Indulgences, the taking away the Cup in the Eucharist, and Transubstantia∣tion, but that Marguerite, the Wife of K. Hen∣ry d' Albret, and Sister to Francis the first, own'd her self to be one of the new Opinion, and as powerfully defended its Professors as she could. Any one may see by the two Chapters of

Gargantua's Education by Ponocrates, that the Author treats of a Protestant Prince, and of Gargantua's being brought to a reform'd state of Life; for he says, that when Ponocrates knew Gargantua's vicious manner of living, he resolv'd to bring him up in a much different way, and requested a learned Physitian of that Time, call'd Master Theodorus, seriously to perpend how to bring him to a better course; he says, that the said Physitian purg'd him canonically, with Anticyrian Hellebore, by which Medicine, he clear'd all that foulness and perverse habit of his Brain, and by this means Ponocrates made him forget all that he had learn'd under his ancient Preceptors. Theodorus is a very proper Name for a Divine, signifying Gift of God, from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and that great Master of Thought, Father Malebranche, gives it to the Divine who is one of the Interlocutors in the admirable Metaphysical Dialogues, which he calls Conversations Chrestiennes; so that as Rabelais tells us, Theodorus was a Physitian for the mind, that is, one of the new Preachers, and perhaps Berthaud, that of Queen Margue∣rite.

By the Anticyrian Hellebore, with which he purged Gargantua's Brain,* 2.11 may be meant powerful Arguments drawn from Reason, and the Scripture oppos'd to the Authority of the Popish Church; after this Purge we find Gargantua awak'd at four in the Mor∣ning,

and while they were rubbing him, some Chapter of the holy Scripture aloud and clearly with a Pronunciation fit for the matter read to him, and according to the purpose and argu∣ment of that Lesson, oftentimes giving himself to Worship, Adore, Pray and send up his Supplica∣tions to that good God, whose Word did shew his Majesty and marvellous Iudgment. That Chap∣ter and the next are admirable, as well as many more, nor can we ever have a more perfect Idea of the Education of a Prince, than is that of his Gargantua, whom he repre∣sents all along as a Man of great Honour, Sense, Courage and Piety; whereas under his other Masters, in the Chapters before, we find him idle, and playing at all sorts of Games. Nothing can better demonstrate the great Ge∣nius and Prudence of our Author who could submit to get together so many odd Names, of trifling things, to keep himself out of Danger, and grace the Counterpart which is so judicious and so grave; he had told us first, that Gargantua under his former Peda∣gogues, after a good Breakfast went to Church, a huge greasie Breviary being car∣ryed before him in a great Basket; that there he heard 26 or 30 Masses; that this while came his Martin Mumbler (Chaplain) muffled about the Chin (that is with his Cow) round as a Hoop, and his Breath pretty well antidoted with the Vine-Tree-Syrop, that with him he mumbled all his

Kyriels, and as he went from the Church, santring along through the Cloysters, ridled more of St. Claude's Patinotres, then sixteen Hermits could have done. So that there we find him a Papist, and in the following Chapter, as I have said a Protestant.

Without doubt, the Sophisters under whom Gargantua did not improve were some noted Men in his Age,* 2.12 I have not yet discovered who they were.

As for Don Philip of Marais Viceroy of Papeligosse, who advises Gran∣gousier to put his Son un∣der another Discipline,* 2.13 he may perhaps be Philip, Son to the Marschall of Navarre; the Title of Don being taken by the Navarrois, and Marais seems Marechall.

Gargantua is sent with Ponocrates to Paris by his Father, that they might know,* 2.14 says he, what was the study of the young Men in France; this shows that Gangousier was not King of it, and that Gargantua was a Stranger there.

Many who take him to be Francis the First, think that his huge great Mare is Ma∣dam d'Estampes, that King's Mistress, and explain that Mare's skirmishing with her Tail, whereby she overthrew all the Wood in the Country of Beauce, by a Gift which they say, he made her of some of its Forests.

They say also, That the King was desirous to buy her a Necklace of Pearls; and that partly on that account he would have got some Money of the Citizens of Paris; but they being unwilling to comply with his demand, the King and his Mistress threat∣ned to sell the Bells of our Lady's Church (the Cathedral) to buy his Lady a Necklace: And that this has given occasion to say,* 2.15 That Gargantua design'd to hang those Bells at his Mare's Neck.

Though, as I have said, Gargantua be not Francis the First, I might believe that Rabe∣lais had a mind to make us merry with the recital of such an Adventure, were it not certain that the said King has read his Book, and would hardly have liked such a Pas∣sage, had he been himself an Actor there; but, besides, History relates nothing of this Nature of him; nor has the Story of the Bells the resemblance of Truth.

As for the blow with the Mare's Tail, it might as well belong to Henry d' Albret, who has not been without a Mistress. Had I been able to get some certain Books, and had the Bookseller not been impatient, by reason of the Term, I would have done my Endea∣vours to unriddle that Enigma; but having hardly a Fortnights time, to make my Obser∣vations, and finish the Author's Life and this Preface, I must put off that Inquiry till some

other Opportunity, and then what further Discoveries I may make, may be published with those on the fourth and fifth Books, which contain Pantagruel's Voyage to the holy Bottle, as beautiful at least as these three.

I will however, offer here a Conjecture on that story of the Bells; we find in the 17, 18 and 19th. Chapters of the first Book, that Master Ianotus de Bragmardo a Sophister is sent to Gargantua to recover the Bells, and makes a wretched Speech to him about it; I am sensible that 'twas partly his Design to ridicule the Universities, which at that time deserv'd no better in France. But in particular, I believe that he aim'd at Ce∣nalis, a Doctor of Sorbonne, and afterwards Bishop of Auranches, for I find that this Pre∣late had writ a Treatise won∣derfully pleasant,* 2.16 concerning the Signs, whereby the true Church may be distinguish'd from the false; in it he waves the preaching of the Gospel, and Ad∣ministration of the Sacraments, and pretends to prove that Bells are the signs which essen∣tially distinguish the Church of Rome from the Reform'd, who at that time had none, and us'd to assemble privately at the letting off of a Musquet in the High Street, which was a sign by which they knew that it was time to meet to perform Divine Service. Ce∣nalis on this, triumphs, as if he had gain'd his Point, and runs on in a long Antithesis,

to prove that Bells are the signs of the true Church, and Guns the mark of the bad; all Bells, says he, sound; but all Guns thunder, all Bells have a melodious Sound, all Guns make a dreadful Noise; Bells open Heaven, Guns open Hell; Bells drive away Clouds and Thunder, Guns raise Clouds, and mock the Thunder. He has a great deal more such Stuff, to prove that the Church of Rome is the true Church, because forsooth, it has Bells, which the other had not.

The taking away the Bells of a Place, implys its Conquest, and even Towns that have Articled are oblig'd to redeem their Bells; perhaps the taking away the great Bells at Paris, was the taking away the Privileges of its University, or some other; for Paris may only be nam'd for a Blind. Thus the Ma∣ster Beggar of the Fryars of St. Anthony, com∣ing for some Hog's Purtenance (St. Antho∣ny's Hog is always pictur'd with a Bell at its Neck) who to be heard afar off, and to make the Beacon shake in the very Chimneys, had a mind to filch and carry those Bells away privi∣ly but was hindered by their weight; that Ma∣ster Beggar, I say, must be the head of some Monks, perhaps of that Order in the Faux∣bourg St. Antoine, who would have been sub∣stituted to those that had been deprived, and the Petition of Master Ianotus is the par∣don which the University begs, perhaps for some affront resented by the Prince; for those

that escap'd the Flood, cry'd we are wash'd Par ris, that is, for having laugh'd. Rabelais, en passant, there severely inveighs against the grumblers and factious Spirits at Paris: Which makes me think that whether the Scene lies there or elsewhere as in Gascoigny, some people of which Country were Henry d' Al∣bret's Subjects, still this was a remarkable E∣vent. In the Prologue to the fourth Book, Iupiter busied about the Affairs of Mankind, crys, Here are the Gascons Cursing, Damning and Renouncing, demanding the re-establish∣ment of their Bells; I suppose that more is meant than Bells, or he would not have us'd the word, Re-establishment.

But 'tis time to speak of the great strife and debate raised betwixt the Cake-bakers of Lerné,* 2.17 and those of Gargantua's Country; whereupon were wag'd great Wars. We may easily apply many things concerning these Wars to those of Navarre, between the House of d'Albret, and King Ferdinand and Charles the fifth. Thus Les Truans, or as this Translation renders it, the Inhabitants of Lerné, who, by the command of Picrochole their King, invaded and plunder'd Vtopia, Gargantua's Country, are the Spanish Soldiers, and Lerné is Spain. The word Truand in old French, signi∣fies an idle lazy Fellow, which hits pretty well the Spaniards Character, the Author having made choice of that name of a place near

Chinon, because it alludes to the Lake Lerna, where Hercules destroyed the Lernaean Hydra, which did so much hurt in the Country of Ar∣gos, that thence came the Proverb, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Malorum Lerna. Thus Spain was a Lerna of Ills, to all Europe, while, like France now, it aspir'd to universal Monarchy, but it was so more particularly to Navarre in Iuly 1512, when King Iohn d' Albret and Queen Catharine de Foix the lawful Sovereign were dispossess'd by Ferdinand King of Arragon, almost with∣out any resistance. The said King Iohn, desi∣rous of Peace, sent Don Alphonso Carillo, Con∣stable of Navarre, in the quality of his Em∣bassador to Ferdinand, to pre∣vent the approaching mischief;* 2.18 but he was so ill receiv'd, says the History of Navarre, Dedicated to King Henry IV. and printed with his Privilege, that he was glad to return to his King with speed, and related to him that there was no hope left to persuade the King of Arragon to a Peace, and that Lewis de Beaumont, Earl of Lerins, who had forsaken Navarre, daily in∣courag'd Ferdinand to attack that Kingdom. So that this Embassie resembles much that of Vlric Gallet to Picrochole who swears by St. Iames, the Saint of the Spaniards. In November 1512. Francis Duke of Angoulesme, afterwards King, was sent with King Iohn d' Albret, by Lewis XII. to recover Navarre, having with

him several of the greatest Lords in France, and a great Army, which possess'd it self of many Places, but the rigour of the Sea∣son oblig'd them to raise the Siege of Pam∣pelune. And in 1521. another Army under the Command of Andrew de Foix, Lord of As∣perault, enter'd Navarre, and wholly regain'd it,* 2.19 but it was lost again soon after by the imprudence of that Gene∣ral, and the Avarice of St. Colombe, one of his chief Officers.

Those that will narrowly examin Histo∣ry, will find that many particulars of the Wars in the first Book of Rabelais, may be reconcil'd to those of Navarre; but I believe that he means something more than a De∣scription of the Fights among the Soldiers, by the debate rais'd betwixt the Cake-sellers or Fouassiers of Lerné, and the Shepherds of Gar∣gantua. Those Shepherds or Pastors, should be the Lutheran and Calvinist Ministers, whom Iohn and Henry d' Albert favour'd, being the more dispos'd to adhere to the reviving Gospel which they preach'd, by the provoking Re∣membrance of the Pope's and King of Spain's injurious usage; and for that Reason, Queen Margarite did not only profess the Protestant Religion, but after the Death of Henry d' Al∣bert, Queen Iane their Daughter, Married to Anthony de Bourbon, was a Zealous Defender of it till she dy'd, and her Son Henry, after∣wards

rais'd to the Throne of France, pub∣lickly own'd himself a Protestant, till his im∣patient desire of being peaceably seated on it, made him leave the better Party to pacifie the worse.

The Cake sellers of Lerné are the Priests, and other Ecclesiastics of Spain; as also all the Missificators of the Church of Rome. Ra∣belais calls them Cake-mongers, or Fouassiers, by reason of the Host, or Sacramental Wa∣fer, which is made of Dough, between a pair of Irons, like the Cakes or Fouasses in Poitou, where Rabelais liv'd, and is said to be transubstantiated into the Corpus-Christi, when consecrated by the Priest.

The Subject of the Debate, as Rabelais terms it, between those Cake-sellers and the Shepherds is the first's refusal to supply the latter with Cakes, to eat with the Grapes which they watch'd. For as Rabelais observes, 'Tis a Celestial Food, to eat for Break-fast, fresh Cakes with Grapes, by which he alludes to the way of receiving the Communion among the Protestants, who generally take that Ce∣lestial Food fasting, and always with the juice of the Grape, that is, with Wine, according to the Evangelical Institution. Now the Cake-mongers or Popish Priests would not consent to give Cakes, that is to say, Bread, but would only give the accidents of the Cakes, or to speak in their own Phrase, the accidents of the Bread, and it is well known that this was

the chief occasion of our separation from the Church of Rome.

Upon the reasonable request of the Shep∣herds, the Cake-sellers, instead of granting it, presently fall to railing and reviling, adding, after a whole Litany of comical, though defamatory Epithetes, that course unraung'd Bread, or some of the great brown Houshold Loaf was good enough for such Shepherds, meaning that the gross Notions of Transub∣stantiation ought ••o satisfie the Vulgar. The Shepherds reply modestly enough, and say that the others us'd formerly to let them have Cakes, by which must be understood, the times that preceded the Doctrin of Tran∣substantion. Then Marquet one of the Cake-Merchants treacherously invites Forgier to come to him for Cakes, but instead of them, only gives him a swindging Lash with his Whip, over-thwart the Legs, whereupon he is rewarded by the other with a broken Pate, and falls down from his Mare, more like a dead then like a living Man, wholly unfit to strike another blow.

These two Combatants are the Contro∣verstists of both parties; the Papist immedi∣ately begins to rail and abuse his Adversary. The Lutheran confounds him in his replys, and for a blow with a Whip treacherously given, very fairly disables his Enemy.

This is the Judgment that Rabelais, a Man of Wit and Learning impartially passes on the Writers of both Parties. If any would seek a greater Mystery in that Grand Debate as Rabelais calls it, which term I believe he would hardly have used for a real Fight, let them imagin that he there describes the Conference at Reinburgh, where Melancthon, Bucer and Pistorius debated of Religion a∣gainst Eccius, Iulius Pflug and Iohn Gropper, and handled them much as Forgier did Mar∣quet.

But this Exploit of Forgier being incon∣siderable, if compared to those of Fryar Ihon des Entomeures, or of the Funnels, as some cor∣ruptly call him, we should endeavour to dis∣cover who is that brave Monk that makes such rare Work with those that took away the Grapes of the Vineyard. By the pre∣tended Key which I think fit to give you after this, since it will hardly make up a Page; we are told, that our Fryar Ihon is the Cardinal of Lorraine, Brother to the Duke of Guise; but that Conjecture is cer∣tainly groundless; for though the Princes of his House were generally very brave, yet that Cardinal never affected to show his Courage in martial Atchievements, and was never seen to girt himself for War, or to fight for the Cause which he most espoused; besides, had he been to have fought, it would have been for Picrochole. It would

be more reasonable to believe that Fryar Ihon is Odet de Coligny Cardinal de Chastillon, Arch∣bishop of Tholouse, Bishop and Earl of Beauuais, Abbot of St. Benign, of Dijon, of Fleury, of Ferrieres and of Vaux de Cernay: For, that Prelate was a Man of Courage, no ways infe∣rior to his Younger Brothers, the Admiral and the Lord d' Andelot. Besides, he was an Enemy to Spain and a Friend to Navarre;* 2.20 then he was a Protestant, and helped his Brothers, doing great Service to those of his Party; and was married to Elizabeth de Hauteville, Dame de Thoré, a Lady of great Quality. Pope Pius IV. in a private Con∣sistory deprived him, for adhering to his Bro∣thers, but he neither valued the Pope nor his Censures; he died in England in 1571, and lies interr'd in Canterbury Cathedral, having been made a Cardinal by Clement VII. at his and Francis I.'s Interview at Marseilles in 1533. I own that what he did for the Protestant Cause was chiefly after the Death of Rabe∣lais, and that some have represented him as a Man wholly given to his Ease; but Rabe∣lais, whose best Friend he was, knew his In∣clinations, even when he composed this Work, which made him dedicate the Fourth part of it to him: And 'tis chiefly to that brave Cardinal that we are obliged for that

Book, and the last of this mysterious History;* 2.21 since without the King's Protecti∣on, which he obtained for Rabelais, he had resolved to write no more, as I have already observed. And for his being addicted to his Pleasures, that exactly answers the Name of his Abbey of Theleme, of which those that are Members do what they please, according to their only Rule, Do what thou wilt, and to the Name of the Abbey, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Volontas. Perhaps Rabelais had also a regard to 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, which often signifies a Nuptial Chamber, to shew that our valiant Monk was married; thus the Description of the Abbey shows us a model of a Society free from all the Tyes of others, yet more honest by the innate Ver∣tues of its Members; therefore its Inscription excludes all Monks and Fryars, inviting in all those that expound the holy Gospel faith∣fully, though others murmur against them. Indeed I must confess, that he makes his Fryar swear very much, but this was to ex∣pose that Vice which, as well as many o∣thers, reigned among Ecclesiastics▪ in his Age. Besides, the Cardinal had been a Souldier, and the Men of that Profession were doubtless not more reserv'd then, than they are now. I will give an instance of it that falls naturally into this Subject, and is the more proper, being of one who was also

a Cardinal, a Bishop, a Lord, an Abbot, Married, a Soldier, a Friend to the House of Navarre, engaged in its Wars, and who perhaps may come in for his share of Friar Ihon. I speak this of Caesar Borgia, the Son of Pope Alex∣ander VI. who having made his escape out of Prison at Medina del Campo, came in 1506 to his Brother in Law Iohn d' Albret, King of Navarre. Being Bishop of Pampeluna its Capital, he resign'd it, as well as his Car∣dinal's Cap and other Benefices, to lead a Military Life; and, after many Engage∣ments in other Countries, was killed,* 2.22 being with King Iohn at the Siege of the Castle of Viane, which held for Lewis de Beaumont Earl of Lerins, Constable of Na∣varre, who had rebelled against King Iohn. That Earl having thrown a Convoy into the Castle, Caesar Borgia who desir'd to fight him at the Head of his Men, cryed, Où est, où est ce C••mtereau? Ie jure Dieu, qu'aujourd'huy ••e le feray mourir ou le prendray prisonier: Ie ne cesseray ••usques á ce qu'il soit entierement destruit, & ne pardonneray ny sauveray la vie à aucun des siens: Tout passera par l' epeé jusques aux chiens & aux chats. That is; Where is, where is this petty Earl? By G— I will this day kill or take him: I will not rest till I have wholly destroyed him: Nor will I spare one Creature that is his; all, to the very Dogs and Cats, shall die by the Sword. It cannot be supposed that

Rabelais drew his Friar Ihon by this Man, but 'tis not unlikely that he had a mind to bring him in, by giving some of his Quali∣fications to his Monk; for there is no doubt that our Author made his Characters double as much as he could, as it were, stowing three, and perhaps▪ five, in the place of one for want of Room; not altogether like an Actor who plays three different Parts in the same Piece, nor like Scaramouch, who acts various Parts in the same Clothes, but like that Pantomime in Lucian, who represented several Things at once; and was said to have five different Souls in one Body. Thus, if Picrochole, besides the Characters of King Ferdinand of Arragon, and of Charles the Fifth, includes that of Dr. de St. Marthe of Fronte∣vaut, as his Grand Sons said to Menagius, Brother Ihon may also be some Monk of the Abbey where Rabelais had lived.

I presume to say more, though, as all that I have said already, I humbly offer it as bare and uncertain Conjectures; why may we not suppose that our Author has a mind to give us, after his manner, a Sketch of the great Luther? He was also a Monk, and a jolly one too; being▪ as Rabelais says, A Clerk even to the Teeth in matter of Bre∣viary. The Vineyard, and consequently the Wine which is saved, is the Cup in the Communion, which, through his means, when taken away by the Popish Priests, was

in spight of Charles the Emperor, also King of Spain, and his Soldiers, restored to the Protestants in Germany. The Prior, who calls Friar Ihon drunken Fellow, for troubling the divine Service, may be the Pope and the su∣perior Clergy.

Then Friar Ihon throwing off his great Monk's Habit, and laying hold on the Staff of the Cross, is Luther's leaving his Mona∣stery, to rely on Christian Weapons, the Merit of his Redeemer. The Victory ob∣tained against those that disorderly ravag'd the Vineyard and took away the Grapes, is his baffling the Arguments of his Opposers; and their being out of Order, means the Ignorance of the Papists. The little Mon∣kitos that profer their help to Friar Ihon, and who leaving their outer-Habits and Costs upon the Rails, made an end of those whom he had already crushed, are those Monks and other of the Clergy, much inferior to Lu∣ther, who followed his Reformation, and wrote against those whom he had in a man∣ner wholly confuted.

'Tis known, That at the Council of Trent the Germans thirsted very much after the Wine in the Eucharist, and that they were as eager for the abolishing of the Cannons that enjoyn'd Celibacy to the Cler∣gy, as for the Restitution of the Cup to the Laity. They used to have the Words of of our Saviour, Bibite ex hoc omnes, mark∣ed

in golden Characters in all their Bi∣bles, and made Songs and Lampoons on the Robbers of the Cup, as they called them. They had also a design to have Cups in all their Standards and Ensigns of War, and the Picture of the Cup in all the Churches of their Communion, as the Hussites of Bo∣hemia had done, which occasion'd this Di∣stic by a Poet of the Roman Church.

Tot pingit Calices Bohemorum terra per urbes, Vt credas Bacchi numina sola coli.

Indeed, what is said of Friar Ihon, Chap. 41, 42 and 43. may induce us to believe, that the Man who has the greatest share in the Character of the Monk did not absolute∣ly cast off his Frock, but far from it, we see that the Friar kept it on to preserve himself from his Enemies, and desired no other Ar∣mour for Back and Breast, and after Gargan∣tua's Followers had armed him Cap-a-pié against his Will, his Armour was the cause of an unlucky Accident, which made him call for help, and swear that he was be∣trayed, while he remain'd hang'd by the Ears on a Tree. So he afterwards threw a∣way his Armour, and took to him the Staft of the Cross; holding himself invulnerable with his Monkish Habit. Accordingly when Captain Drawforth is sent by Picrochole with 1600 Horsemen thoroughly besprinkled

with holy water, and who to be distinguish∣ed from their Enemies, wore a Stole instead of a Scarf (for so it should have been in the 43. Chapter, and not Star as it is there printed) we find that Fryar Ihon having frighted them all away, Draw-forth only excepted, that bold Enemy, with his utmost strength could not make his Lance pierce our Monk's Frock, and was soon knock'd down by him with the staff of the Cross; and found out to be a Priest by his Stole.

This confirms what has been said, that, all this War is chiefly a dispute of Religion; and this part of it seems to relate to Car∣dinal Chastillon, because he was secure within his Ecclesiastical habit; the Authour some∣times, as I have said, joyning several Cha∣racters together. Thus the Monk's discourse at Table is not only applicable to that Car∣dinal but also to Montluc Bishop of Valence, who makes his first appearance on our Do∣ctor's stage, in the second act by the name of Panurge; for Fryar Ihon being desired to pull off his Frock; Let me alone with it, re∣plyes he, I'l drink the better while it is on, It makes all my Body Iocund, did I lay it aside, I should lose my appetite: So, Many in those days, as well as in these, lov'd the Benefice more then they hated the Religion. Some will say that the request made then to Fryar Ihon was only, that he should ease himself of his monastic Frock while he was at Ta∣ble,

but Rabelais would not have made his Monk refuse such a request; he knew that some of the Princes of the Clergy had in his time, at the French Court, and in the King's Presence taken a greater liberty; for there had been a Ball in Lewis the XII's Reign, where two Cardinals danc'd before him, among the rest; and in another given him by Ioanne-Iacomo Trivulse, several Prin∣ces and great Lords had danc'd in Fryar's habit. The Monk talks with a great deal of Freedom at Gargantua's Table, and swears that he kept open house at Paris for six Months; then he talks of a Fryar that is become a hard Students then says that for his part he studies not at all, justifying himself for this conduct in false Latin; after this he abruptly starts a new matter, and lets his Fancy run after hares, hawks and hounds, and thus he goes on by sallies, and admi∣rably humours the way of talking of the young Courts Abbots in France. Now pro∣bably the Cardinal who did not set up for a Man of Learning, being of great Quality, allowed himself Liberty accor∣dingly, making hunting one of his Recreations;* 2.23 and indeed what Gargantua says concern∣ing Fryar-Ihon, in the next Chapter, hits Cardinal Chastillon's Character exactly: There having taxed most Monks with mumbling out great store of Legends and Psalms, which

they understand not at all, and interlarding many Paternotres, with ten times as many Ave-maries without thinking upon or appre∣hending the meaning of what they say, which he calls mocking of God and not Prayers; he says, that all true Christians in all places, and at all times send up their Prayers to God, and the Spirit prayeth and intercedes for them and God is gracious to them: Now such a one, adds he, is our Fryar-Jhon, he is no Bigot &c.

What Grangousier says to the French Pil∣grims, shows that he also was no Biggot, and was not King of France; when speak∣ing of some superstitious Preachers, one of whom had called him Heretic, he adds, I wonder that your King should suffer them in their Sermons to publish such Scandalous Do∣ctrin in his Dominions. Then Fryar-Ihon, says to the Pilgrims, that while they thus are upon their Pilgrimage, the Monks will have a Fling at their Wives. After that, Grangousier bids them not be so ready to undertake those idle and unprofitable journyes, but go home and live as St. Paul directs them, and then God will guard them from Evils which they think to avoid by Pilgrimages.

What has been observed, puts it beyond all doubt, that our jesting Author was in∣deed in Earnest when he said, that he mystical∣ly treated of the most high Sacraments, and dreadful secrets, in what concerns our Religion,

I know, that immediately after this, he passes off with a Banter what he had assur'd very seriously; but this was an admirable peice of Prudence; and who ever will narrowly examin his writings will find, that this Ver∣tue is inseparably joyned with his wit, so that his Enemies never could have any ad∣vantage over him.

But not to comment upon several other Places in his first Book, that the ingenious may have the pleasure of unriddling the rest of it themselves, I will only add, that his manner of ending it is a Master peice surpassing, the artful evasion, which as I have now observed, is in its Introduction.

It is an Enigma, as indeed is the whole Work, I could only have wished that it had been proper to have put it into a more modish Dress (for then doubtless it would have more generally have pleased) But I suppose that the Gentleman who revised this Translation thought it not fit to give the Graces of our Modern Enigmas to the Translation of a prophetical Riddle in the style of Merlin. Gargantua piously fetches a very deep sigh, when he has heard it read, and says, that he perceives by it, that it is not now only, that People called to the Faith of the Gospel, are persecuted; but happy is the Man that shall not be scandalized, but shall always continue to the end, in aiming at the Mark, which

God by his dear Son has set before us &c. Upon this the Monk asks him, what he thought was signified by the Riddle? What? says Gargantua, the Decrease and Propagation of the Divine Truth; That is not my Expositi∣on, says the Monk, it is the style of the Prophet Merlin; make as many grave Al∣legories, and Tropes as you will; I can conceive no other meaning in it, but a des∣cription of a Set at Tennis in dark and ob∣scure Terms. By this Riddle which he ex∣pounds he cunningly seems to insinuate that all the rest of his Book, which he has not explained, wholly consists of trifles; and what is most remarkable, is that he illustrates the Truths which he had con∣cealed by the very Passage where∣with he pretends to make them pass for Fables, and thus blinds with too much light, those Enemies of Truth, who would not have failed to have burned him alive, in that persecuting Age, had he had less Wit and Prudence than they shewed Ignorance and Malice.

I need not enlarge much on the other Books by reason of the Discoveries made in the first that relate to them. The first Chapter of the second, gives us Pantagruel's Pedigree from the Giants: It has been ob∣served by a Learned Man some Years ago, that the word Giant, which the In∣terpreters of the Scripture have set in

their Versions, stands there for another that means no more then Prince in the Hebrew; so perhaps our Author was the more ready to make his Princes Giants; tho as I have said, his chief design was tacitly to cen∣sure in this Iohn d' Albret, and such others as (like one in Britany, that took for his Motto, Antequam Abraham esset sum) were too proud of an uncertain empty Name. His description of the Original of Giants, and the story of Hurtali's bestriding the Ark, is to mock those in the Thalmud and other Legends of the Rabbins; for he tells us, that when this happened the Calends were found in the Greek Almanacs, and all know that ad Graecas Calendas, is as much as to say, Never; for the Greeks never reckoned by Calends. Yet, what he tells us of the Earth's Fertility in Medlars, after it had been em∣brued with the Blood of the Just, may be Allegorical: And those who, by feeding on that fair large delicious Fruit, became Monstrous, may be the converts of that Age, who by the Popish World were looked upon as Monsters. The Blood of Martyrs, which was profusedly spilt in that Age, has always been thought Prolific even to a Pro∣verb, and the word Mesles in French and Medlars in English, equally import Medling; thus in French, Il se Mesle de nos affaires, he medles with our Busi∣ness; so the Medlars may be those who

busied themselves most about the Re∣formation.

The Great Drought at the Birth of Panta∣gruel, is that almost universal cry of the Lay∣ty, for the Restitution of the Cup in the Sa∣crament, at the time that Anthony de Bourbon Duke of Vandosme, was married to the Heiress of Navarre, which was in Octob. 1548, the Council of Trent then sitting. For, thence we must date his Birth, since by that match he afterwards gain'd the Title of King, be∣sides Bearn, Bigorre, Albret, and several other Territories; and we are told, Book 3. Chap. 48. that Pantagruel at the very first Minute of his Birth, was no less tall than the Herb Pantagruelion (which unquestionably is Hemp) and a little before that, 'tis said that its height is commonly of five or six foot. The Death of Queen Margarite his Mother in Law, that soon follow'd, made our Author say, that when Pantagruel was born, Gargantua was much perplexed, seeing his Wife Dead, at which he made many Lamentations. Perhaps this also alludes to the Birth of King Edward the Sixth, which caus'd the Death of his Mo∣ther, Queen Iane Seymour. King Henry the Eighth is said to have comforted himself, with saying that he could get another Wife, but was not sure to get another Son: Thus, here we find Gargantua much griev'd, and joy∣ful by fits, like Talboy in the Play, but at last comforting himself with the thoughts of his

Wife's Happiness, and his own, in having a Son, and saying that he must now cast about how to get another Wife, and will stay at home and rock his Son.

In the sixth Chapter, we find Pantagruel dis∣coursing with a Limosin, who affected to speak in learned Phrase. Rabelais had in the forego∣ing Chapter, satiris'd many Persons, and gi∣ven a hint of some abuses in the Universities of France; in this he mocks some of the Writers of that Age, who to appear learned, wholly fill'd their Works with Latin Words, to which they gave a French Inflection. But this Pedantic Iargon was more particularly af∣fected by one Helisaine of Limoges, who as Boileau, says of Ronsard, en Francois parlant, Greek et Latin (speaking Greek and Latin in French) thought to have refin'd his Mo∣ther Tongue: So Rabelais, to prevent the spreading of that Contagion, has not only brought that Limousin Author on his Pantagru∣elian Stage, but wrote a Letter in Verse, all in that Style, in the name of the Limousin Scholar, printed at the end of the Pantagrue∣lian Prognostication. Pasquier, who liv'd at that time, has made the like Observation on that Chapter, when in his second Book of Letters, p. 53. he says,—pour l'ornement de nostre langue, et nous aider mesmes du Grec et du Latin, non pour les escorcher ineptement comme fit sur nostre jeune age, Helisaine, dont nostre gentil Rabelais s'est mocqué fort a propos en la

personne de l'escolier Limosin qu'il introduct parlan•• a Pantagruel en un language escorche Latin.

The 7th. Chapter wherein he gives a Ca∣talogue of the Books in St. Victor's Library is admirable, and would require a large Com∣ment, it being a Satyr against many Writers and great Affairs in that Age, as well as against those who either make Collections of bad Books, or seek no others in Libraries; but I have not leasure to read over a great number of Books, that ought to be consulted for such a Task.

The Cause which was pleaded before Pan∣tagruel by the Lords Suck-fizle and Kiss-Breech,* 2.24 seems to be a Mock of the famous Tryal, concerning two Dutchies, four Counties, two Vi-counties, and many Baronies and Lordships, to which Loyse de Savoye, the Mother of Francis the first, laid Claim Charles de Bourbon Constable of France, was possest of them, but because he had refus'd to marry her, she made use of some Titles, which she had to them, to per∣plex him, and though she could not even with the King her Son's Favour, cast the Constable, yet they were sequestred into the King's Hands, and the final determination put off. Pasquier in his Recherches, observes, that when Guillaume Poyet, afterwards Chancellor, and Francois de Monthelon, afterwards Lord-Keeper, then the two most famous Coun∣cellors

of the Age, pleaded the Cause; the first for Plantiff, the other for Defendant: They armed themselves with a pedantic Iuris prudence borrowed from a parcel of Italian School Boys, whom some call Doctors at Laws, true Hatchers of Law Suits; (such was the Rhetoric of that Time) and as it is easie to stray in a thick Wood, so, with a confused heap of various Quotations, instead of explaining the Cause, they perplexed it, and filled it with darkness. Upon this, by the united Voice of the People, the Name of the Plantiff was owned to contain the Truth of the Case; that is, Loyse de Savoye▪ Loy se des∣avoye, The Law goes astray; which is per∣haps the happiest Anagram tha•• e••er was, fot 'tis made without changing the Order of the Letters, and only by dividing the Words otherwise than they are in the Name.

The 18, 19 and 20th Chapters treat of a great Scholar of England, who came to argue by Signs with Pantagruel, and was over∣come by Panurge. I do not well know on whom to fix the Character of Thaumast that Scholar, whose Name may not only signi∣fie an Admirer, an admirable Person, or one of those School-men, who follow the Doctrin of Thomas Aquinas, in opposition to that of Scotus: And I find as little Reason to think, that any would have come to con∣fer with Anthony de Bourbon, of Geomancy, Philosophy and the Cabalistic Art. Indeed, Sir Thomas Moore, went Ambassador to Francis

the First, and Erasmus, who lived some time in England, also came to Paris; but I can∣not think, that either may pass for the Thau∣mast of Rabelais. Perhaps he hath made him an English Man, merely on purpose to disguise the Story; and I would have had some thoughts of Henricus Cornelius Agrippa, who came to France and died there; but I will prove, when I examin the Third Book, that he has brought him on the Stage by the Name of Her-trippa. So 'tis not im∣possible but that he may have meant Hiero∣nimus Cardan of Milan, who flourish'd in that Age, and was another dark Cabalistic Au∣thor. The first has said, Occult. Philos. l. 1. c. 6. That he knew how to communicate his Thoughts by the species of Sight in a magical Way, as Pythagoras was said to do, by writing any thing in the Body of the Moon, so as it should be legible to another at a vast distance; and he pretends to tell us the method of it in his Book, De vanitate Scientiarum. Cardan also has writ concerning private Ways of imparting our Thoughts, Sub∣••ilit. l. 17. and De Variet. Rerum, lib. 12. but these ways of signifying our Thoughts by Ge∣stures, called by the Learned Bishop Wilkins Se∣maeology, are almost of infinite Variety, ac∣cording as the several Fancies of Men shall impose Significations upon such Signs as are capable of sufficient difference. And the Venerable Bede has made a Book only of

that, commonly stiled Arthrologia, or Dacty∣lologia; which he calls, Lib. de loquelâ per gestum digitorum, sive de indigitatione: So that perhaps our Author made his Thaumast an English Man, not to reflect on Beda, but because that Learned Father is the most An∣cient and Famous Author that has written a Book on that Subject.

I have Read of a public Debate much like that of Thaumast and Panurge, and as probable, said to have been held at Geneva. The Agressor lifted up his Arm and closed three of his Fingers and his Thumb, and pointed with the remaining Finger at his Oppo∣nent; who immediately pointed at him again with two. Then the other shewed him two Fingers and one Thumb; whereupon his Antagonist shook his closed Fist at him. Upon this the Aggressor showed him an Apple; and the other looking into his Pocket found a bit of Bread, and in a scornful way let him see it; which made him that began the Dispute yield himself vanquished. Now when the Conqueror was desired to relate what their Signs signified; He with whom I disputed, said he, threatned first to put out one of my Eyes, and I gave him to under∣stand, that I would put out both his: Then he threatned to tear both mine, and take off my Nose; upon which I shewed him my Fist, to let him know, that I would knock him down: And as he perceived that

I was angry, he offered me an Apple to pa∣cifie me as they do Children; but I showed him, that I scorn'd his Present, and that I had Bread, which was fitter for a Man.

After all, Montluc, who is our Panurge, may have had some Dispute about the Signs of the true Religion, or the two Sacraments of the Protestants, and the seven of the Romans, they being properly called Signs, and such a thing not being recorded by Historians, like many others that relate to this Work, it may not be possible to discover it.

The Dipsodes that had besieged the City of the Amaurots,* 2.25 are the Flemings and other Subjects of the Emperor Charles the Fifth, that made Inroads into Picardy, and the adjacent Territories, of which Anthony of Bourbon was not only Governor, but had considerable Lordships in those Parts. The Flemings have always been brisk Topers; and for this Reason are call'd Dipsodes, from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Sitio, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Thirsty; and he calls Picardy and Ar∣tois the Land of the Amaurots, from the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 obscurus or evanidus; perhaps because they are in the North of France; or that part of them were in the hands of the Enemy. Te∣rouenne may well be called now 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as that word is taken for being vanish'd and oblitera∣ted: For, Charles the Fifth utterly destroyed it. Sandoval tells us, That the Spaniards took it by Escalada, that is, having scaled the

Walls, and that they flew over them like the swiftest and most tow'ring Birds; yet as he says, that they went up with Ladders, this must be reckon'd a very odd way of flying.

In 1543, which was some Years before that fine City was ruin'd,* 2.26 Anthony de Bour∣bon Duke of Vendosme hearing that it was ill stored with Provisions, assembled his Army, and with Francis of Lorrain Duke of Aumale, the Duke of Guise's Eldest Son, the Duke de Nevers, Marshal du Biez and several other Lords, marched to its Relief with good Success; having in spight of the Enemy supplied the Place with all manner of Necessaries.

In the mean time, several of the Lords and other Officers in his Camp used to Skir∣mish; and once particularly having long tried to draw the Flemings out, these at last engaged them; they were much more Nu∣merous, yet the French got the Better, and cut off a great Number of their Ene∣mies: This perhaps may be the Victory which the Gentlemen Attendants of Pantagruel obtain'd over Six hundred and threescore Horsemen, Chap. 25. And a Trophy was raised, Chap. 27. for a Memorial of those Gentlemens Victory.

The next Exploit is that in the 29th. Chapter, where we find how Pantagruel dis∣comfited the Three hundred Giants armed with Free-stone, and Loupgarou their Cap∣tain. The Death of Loupgarou in the pre∣sence of his Giants, may relate to the taking of Liliers, a Town between Bapaume and Aire: It molested very much the Country that belonged to the French, and was seated near a Marsh; yet notwithstanding the Ad∣vantage of the Season, and its resolute Gar∣rison, the Duke of Vendosme having caused a large Breach to be made, and being ready to storm the Place, the Besieged desired to Capitulate, and after many Parlies surren∣dred the Town on dishonourable Terms.

By Accident the Ammunitions of the Besie∣gers had taken Fire, and even some of the Car∣riages of the Artillery were burn'd; which may perhaps have made our Author say in the foregoing Chapter, that Carpalin having set on Fire the Enemy's Ammunition, the flame having reached the Place where was their Artillery, he was in great danger of being burn'd; or perhaps, this alludes to the Duke of Vendosme's setting Liliers on fire and destroying it quite, after he had taken it. For our Author writes not like an Historian but like a Poet, who ought not to be blam'd for Anachronisms; nor have the best Critics censur'd Virgil for that about Dido and Ene••••, between the Time of whose Lives whole

Ages are reckoned by Chronologists. How∣ever 'tis certain, that the Relief of Terouenne, and then the Surrender of Liliers were An∣thony de Bourbon's two first Exploits; the one soon after the other; then the Three hun∣dred Giants arm'd with Free-stone, which Pantagruel struck down like a Mason, by breaking their stony Armour, mowing them down with the dead Body of Loupgarou, are a great number of Castles about Liliers, Te∣rouenne, Saint Omer, Aire and Bethune, which Anthony of Bourbon demolish'd immediately after he had taken Liliers, and then passed through Terouenne, which is the City of the Amaurots which he went to relieve; by whose Inhabitants Pantagruel is so nobly received in the 31th. we may also suppose, that by King Anarchus, Rabelais means the plundering lawless Boors that shelter'd themselves in those Castles, who were afterwards reduced to sell Herbs. This is, Anarchus's being reduc'd to cry green Sawce in a Canvas Iacket.

The Duke of Vendosme marched next, without any resistance, through the Upper Artois, took Bapaume in his Way, which is doubtless the Almyrods, called so from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Salsuginosus, or salted People,* 2.27 who resolved to hold out against Pantagruel; yet only to have honourable Conditions. It seems to me, that this is meant of the Castle of that Town which held out against the

Duke only for Terms, all the Inhabitants of the Town being retired into that small place, where there was but one Well, whose Water had been altogether Exhausted in two Days (to which, perhaps, relates the Salt which Pantagruel put into the Mouths of his Enemies) and they were ready to submit to Mercy,* 2.28 with Halters at their Necks; but the King, who had already sent ma∣tny Expresses to the Duke, ordering him to march to join him with all speed, and nei∣••her to Stop at Bapaume or any where else, sent him angrily fresh Orders, wherein he charged him of his Allegiance, to join him that Day at Chasteau in Cambrezis on pain of incurring his Displeasure. So the Duke, to the great Joy of the Besieged and his greater Sorrow, raised his Camp, and came to the King. Neither does our Author speak of the Surrender of the Almyrods; but makes Pantagruel's Forces be overtaken with a great shower of Rain, and then tells us how Pantagruel covered a whole Army with his Tongue: For they began, says he, to shiver and tremble, to croud, press and thrust close to one another; which when he saw, he bid his Captains tell them, that it was nothing; however, that they should put themselves into Order, and he would cover them; and he drew out his Tongue

only half way, and covered them all. I find that the Duke, before he took Liliers and besieged the Castle of Bapaume, sent to the King to desire him to send a Months Pay to his Forces, and then he could take some Frontier Towns, and even Bapaume; but the King sent him no Money, and, on the contrary, ordered him to march on to meet him; but before he had that Answer, he had taken Liliers. So his Soldiers, who wanted their Pay and Clothes, being also vex'd for having, by the King's Fault, missed taking the Booty in the Castle of Bapaume, were displeased and in bad Cir∣cumstances; but upon this the Duke spoke to the King, and got them their Arrears and Clothes: And this is what Rabelais calls covering an Army with his Tongue. As for what follows, it seems an imitation of Lucian's Whale in his true History, as the News which Epistemon brings from Hell in the 30th Chapter is also a Copy of that Author; and what ours says he saw in Pantagruel's Mouth, is only to blind the rest; which seems to me so plain, like most of the Discoveries I here publish, that I won∣der that none ever gave an Account of any of them in the space of above One hundred and Forty Years.

The Sickness of Pantagruel Chapter 33. is his disgust upon this disappointment at

Bapaume; or some real sickness that seiz'd him.

There the Author concludes his second Book, that was published sometime after the First, which we may perceive by what he tells us of the Monks, and their bigotted Cullies, who had already try'd to find something in it that might render him ob∣noxious to the Law; which caused him to be somewhat more reserved in matters of Religion in that and the following, than he was afterwards in the fourth and fifth. Yet we find a Prayer in the twenty ninth Chapter which shews that his Panta∣gruel, Anthony de Bourbon, was for the Pro∣testant Religion, but did not openly profess it. Accordingly, Historians grant that he was a Calvinist, even long before Rabelais dyed: And tho for his Interest (as he thought,) he afterwards sided with the French-Court against the Protestant Party, yet af∣ter he had been mortally wounded at the Siege of Roan,* 2.29 he complained of being deceiv∣ed; and ordered one of his Ser∣vants who was a Protestant to bring a Minister to him, but the other not being able to do it in those persecuting Times, he com∣manded him to pray by him after the manner of the Reformed Church, which the other did to that unfortunate King's

satisfaction; Cardinal de Bourbon his Brother being then present.

Panurge is the chief actor in the third act of our Pantagruelian Play; we find him there much perplexed with uncertainties; his mind fluctuating between the desire of en∣tring into a matrimonial Engagement and the fear of having occasion to repent it. To be eased of his doubt, he consults several Persons, all famous for some particular skill in removing Anxieties of mind; and there our Learned and Ingenious Satyrist displays his knowledge and his fancy to admiration, as has been observed by the Learned Van Dale in the passage which I have given you out of his Book de Oraculis, after the Account of our Author's Life.

But before that, we find Pantagruel in the first Chapter transporting a Colony of Vto∣pians into Dipsodie; for which Rabelais gives a very good Reason and proves himself a Master at Politics as well as at other Things. To explain that passage, we must know, that the Duke of Vendosme garrison'd out of Picrady some of the Places that had been taken in Artois, fixing also there some of his Vassals and Tenants, who were very numerous there abouts; and as he was born among them viz. at La Fere in 1518▪ he had a particular love for them.

In the second Chapter Panurge is made Laird of salmygondin in Dipsodie, and wasteth

his Revenue before it comes in: I can apply this to nothing but the gift of some Benefice to Montluc by the Duke of Vendosme or the Queen of Navarre, afterwards his Mo∣ther in Law; which Benefice not being sufficient to supply him in his Extravagances, something more considerable was bestowed on him; which having set him at Ease gave him occasion to reflect on his former ill conduct and grow more thrifty: So that afterwards he entertained some thoughts of Marriage and probably was married, when Rabelais wrote.

Among those whom Panurge consults, the Sybil of Panzoust is the first whose right name is difficult to be discovered. The pretended Key in the French makes her a Court Lady; but its Author seems never to have read Rabelais, or at least not to have understood him, if we may judge of it by the Names which he, in spight of Reason, has set against some of those in our Author. Among four or five short Explanations of as many Passages in Rabelais, also printed in the French, one of them tells us, that by the Sybil of Panzoust, our Author means a Gentlewoman of that Place, near Chinon, who dy'd very old, and always lived single tho importuned by her Friends to marry when she was young. But Rabelais having in this Book very artfully made his Panurge consult Men of different Professions famous

in his Time, to be eased of his doubt, I do not beleive that he would have begun by a Woman altogether unknown to the learned World: Yet not, but that he may have made choice of the Name of Panzoust to double the Character, if he knew that such an Antiquated She-thing, liv'd there. I have indeavoured to discover who might be that Sybill, but dare not positively fix that Character on any. St. Therese, a Spa∣nish Nun, who liv'd in that Age, might come in for a share, she has writ several Books, and was already famous when Rabelais liv'd, she had very odd notions, and discover'd perhaps as much madness as sanctity. I find another noted crack'd-brain Bigotte, who was old at that Time and liv'd at Venice: Tis one whom several great Men have men∣tioned by the name of Virgo Venetas. Guillaume Postel, amongst the rest, a very learned Jesuit and very famous in that Age for Philosophy, calls her Mother Ioane, and had such a veneration for her, that he thought the Re∣paration of the Female Sex, not yet perfect∣ed, and that such a glorious Work was reserved for her; but Florimond de Raymond excuses him in this, and says, that he only designed to praise her, for the great services which she had done him in his Travels. There is another, for whom I would certain∣ly believe the Sybil's Character made, were

I sure that our Author and she were Con∣temporaries: Her name is Magdelen de la Croix she was a Nun, and had so well gained the reputation of being a Saint, that she was consulted as a Sybil by the greatest Kings and Princes in Europe; but at last she proved a Sorceress and was burn'd. If I am not mistaken Dr. Henry More has made mention of her; and I have read her History among several others in a Book called Histoires Tragiques. But as I am forc'd to quote those Books by memory, like many others which I cannot conveniently procure, I must refer the Reader to them for fur∣ther satisfaction.

In the one and twentieth Chapter Panurge consulteth with Raminagrobis an old French Poet, who was almost upon the very last mo∣ment of his Life. This Poet was William Cret∣in Treasurer of the King's Chappel, who had liv'd under Charles the VIII. Lewis the XII. and Francis the I. as may be seen by his Works. Never was Man more celebrated by the Writers of his Age. Iohn le Maire dedicated to him his three Books of the Il∣lustrations of France, and speaks of him as of the Man to whom he owed all things Geoffroy Toré in his Champ fleury says, that Cretin in his Chronicles of France had out∣done Homer and Virgil. And even Maro••

inscribed to him his Epigrams. Here are the four first verses of Marot to him.

L' homme Sotart et non Scavant, Comme un Rotisseur qui lave oye, La Faute d' autruy nonce avant Qu'il la cognoisse, ou qui'l la voye: &c.

All their Beauty (if they can be said to have any) consists in their Rich or rather punning Rhimes; and truly that Epigram is unworthy of Marot: Tis probable that as Cretin was then old he was respected by the young Fry, who yet outliv'd their Er∣ror; for never did Man sooner lose after his Death, the Fame which he had gained during his Life: And the Reason which caused Marot to write to him in such equi∣vocal Rhimes, was doubtless, because Cretin affected much that way of Writing. Here are four of Cretin's Lines which in his Book are follow'd by 122 more such.

Par ces vins verds Atropos a trop os Des corps humains ruez envers en vers, Dont un quidam aspre aux pots apropos A fort blasmé ses tours pervers par vers. &c.

I never saw more Rhime with so little sence. For this Reason, Rabelais who (as Pas∣quier says) had more Iudgment and Learning than all those that wrote French in his time,

has exposed that riming old Man: And to leave us no room to doubt of it, the Ron∣deau which Raminagrobis gives to Panurge upon his irresolution as to his marriage, Pre∣nez la ne la prenez pas &c. that is, Take, or not take her, off or on, &c. is taken out of Cretin, who had addrest it to Guillau∣me de Refuge who had ask'd his advice, be∣ing in the same perplexity. However Rabelais makes him dye like a good Pro∣testant, and afterwards turns off cunningly what the other had said against the Popish Clergy, who would not let him dye in Peace; and to shew more plainly that this is said of Cretin, Rabelais says at the begin∣ning of the four and twentieth Chapter Lais∣sans là Villaumere, that is, having left Villaumere, which relates to William, that Poet's name.

I ought not to omit a Remark printed in the last Dutch Edition of this Book concerning what Panurge says of Cretin. He is by the Vertue of an Ox, an arrant Heretic; a thorough-pac'd rivitted Heretick, I say, a rooted Combustible Heretick, one as fit to burn, as the little wooden Clock at Ro∣chel, his Soul goeth to thirty thousand Cart-full of De∣vils. Rabelais there reflects on the Sentence of Death passed on one of the First that owned himself a Protestant at Rochell. He was a Watch-maker, and had made a Clock all of Wood, which was esteemed an admirable Piece; but because it was the Work of one condemn'd for Heresy, the Judges order'd by the said sen∣tence

that the Clock should be burned by the common hangman, and it was burned accordingly; we must also observe that the adjective Clavelé that is, full of Nails or Rivitted, is brought in because that Watch-maker who was very famous for his Zeal, was named Clavelé.

In the 24th. Chapter Panurge consults Epistemon, who perhaps may be Guillaume Ruffy, Bishop of Oleron, one of Queen Mar∣garite's Ministers, who had been sometime in Prison for preaching the Reformation, and was afterwards made Bishop in the King of Navarre's Territories, having without doubt dissembled like many others. Thus his de∣scent into Hell, in the second Book, may be his Prison: I own, that he is with Pantagruel in the Wars, but so is Panurge, and this is done to disguise the Characters; I am the more apt to believe him a Clergy Man, because he understands Hebrew very well, which few a∣mong the Layty do, and none else, in our Author, besides Panurge, who calls him his dear Gossip; then his Name denotes him to be a thinking, considering Man, and as he was Pantagruel's Pedagogue, so probably Ruffy initiated or instructed the Duke, in the Doctrine of the new Preachers.

Enguerrant, whom Rabelais taxes with ma∣king a tedious and impertinent Digression a∣bout a Spaniard, is Enguerrant de Monstrelet, who wrote La Chronique & Annales de France.

In the same Chapter he speaks of the four Ogygian Islands near the Haven of Sammalo; by this he seems to mean Iersey, Gernsey, Sark, and Alderney. As Queen Margaret liv'd a while, and dy'd in Britanny, our Actors may be thought sometimes to stroul thither. Ca∣lypso was said to live at the Island Ogygia; Lu∣cian amongst the rest places her there, and Plutarch mentions it in the Book of the Face that appears in the Circle of the Moon.

Her-Trippa, is undoubtedly Henricus Corne∣lius Agrippa burlesqued. Her is Henricus or Herricus, or perhaps alludes to Heer, because he was a German, and Agrippa is turn'd into Trippa, to play upon the word Tripe. But for a farther Proof, we need but look into A∣grippa's Book, de Occult. Philosoph. Lib. 1. Cap. 7. de quatuor elementorum, Divinationibus, and we shall find the very words us'd by Ra∣belais of Pyromancy, Aeromancy, Hydromancy, &c. Besides, Agrippa came to Francis the First, whom our Author calls the great King to distin∣guish him from that of Navarre.

Fryar Iohn des Entosmures, or, of the Funnels, as he is called in this Translation, advises Panurge to marry, and whether by that brave Monk we understand Cardinal Chastillon or Martin Lu∣ther, the Character is kept, since both were Married; neither was the latter wholly free from Fryar Iohn's swearing Faculty, if it be true that being once reproved about it, he re∣plyed, condonate mihi hoc qui fui monachus. En∣tomeures

has doubtless been mistaken for Enton∣noir, a Funnel, but the true Etymology, is from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 to cut and make inci∣sions, which was our Monk's delight, who is described as a mighty Trencher-man.

In the following Chapters, a Theologian Physitian, Lawyer and Philosopher are consul∣ted.

Hippothadeus, the Theologian, may perhaps be Philip Shwartzerd, alias Melancthon; for he speaks too much like a Protestant to be the King's Confessor, neither could Montluc be supposed to desire his Advice.

Rondibilis the Physitian is doubtless Guliel∣mus Rondeletius. Thuanus remarks, in the thir∣ty eighth Book of his History, that Will. Rondelet of Montpellier, died 1566, and that though he was a learned Physitian, Rabelais had satiris'd him; he adds, that indeed the Works of Rondelet, do not answer the Ex∣pectation, which the World had of him, nor the Reputation which he had gain'd; and his Treatise of Fishes, which is the best that bears his Name, was chiefly the Work of Will. Pelissier, Bishop of Montpelier, who was cast into Prison for being a Protestant. How∣ever, Rabelais makes him display much Lear∣ning in his Discourse to Panurge.

I am not so certain of the Man whom Trouil∣logan personates, he calls him an Ephectic and Pyrrhonian Philosopher. I find that Petrus Ra∣mus, or De la Ramée, afterwards Massacred

at Paris, had written a Book against Aristotle, and we have also his Logic; but as he is mentioned by Iupiter in the Prologue to the fourth Book, by the name of Rameau, where his dispute with Petrus Galandius, and his be∣ing nam'd Peter are also mentioned, I am in doubt about it. Moliere has imitated the Scene between Trouillogan and Panurge, in one of his Plays, and Mr. Dela Fontaine, the story of Hans Carvell, and that of the 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 un∣necessary Attendants, on a single Noun Sub∣stantive.

Marotte is a word very much us'd by the French, signifying a Fools Bauble or Club, and the word ••ou, given by Rabelais to Tri∣boulet implys a mad, crack'd-brain'd, or in∣considerate 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 ho∣nourable 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 Parlia∣ment 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 Juris∣diction 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 Con∣sequence. Considering the strong Interces∣sion 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 Panta∣gruelion 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 ap∣pears trivial and foolish in that Work, is generally Grave and of Moment, when se∣riously 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 at∣tempted to be explained, I humbly submit all I have said to the Judgment of the Lear∣ned; to whom I will esteem my self much obliged, if they will be pleased either to let me know wherein I have erred, or com∣municate 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;* 2.30

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 Ro∣mances. 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 Pytha∣gorical 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 Na∣ture, 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 i•• 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 Gymno∣sophists of India are said, by Diogenes Lae••tius, to have delivered their Philosophy in Enig∣mas. So that the learned Huetius thinks, that when Horace said, Fabulosus Hydaspes, 'twas 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 Mil∣lions more of such insignificant voluminous Lyes are lost and forgotten, as well as their Authors; the name of the best of whom call'd ••ristides, hardly survives his Writings. He

liv'd doubtless before Marius and Syllas's Wars; for Sisenna, a Roman Historian, had Latiniz'd his Fables, which were very obscene, yet long the delight of the Romans. Photius in his Bibliotheque, has given an extract of a fabulous Story composed by Antonius Diogenes, whom he thinks to have liv'd sometime af∣ter Alexander: It treats in Prose of the Loves of Dinias and Dercyllis, in imitation of Homer's Odysseis, and relates many incredible Adventures; its Author also makes mention of one Antiphanes who before had written in that Nature, and who perhaps, may be a Comic Poet, whom the Geographer Stepha∣nus says to have writ some such Rela∣tions.

These are thought to have been the mo∣dells of what Lucius, Lucian, Iamblichus, Achilles, Tatius and Damascius have written in that kind, not to speak of Heliodorus, Bishop of Tricca, who under Arcadius and Honorius, wrote the Adventures of Theagenes and Cha∣riclea, some passages of which have been copied by Guarini, and the Author of Astrea.

Our Britains about that time have not been behind hand with other Nations in writing such Books. Theleisin, whom Some place a∣mong the Bards, because he made some Pro∣pheci••s in Verse, liv'd about the middle of the sixth Century, and as well as Melkin wrote fabulous Histories in Welsh, of Britain, King Arthur, Merlin, and the Knights of the

round Table. Those of Ieoffrey of Monmouth, have not much more the appearance of Truth; and as much may be said of what Gildas a Welsh Monk writ of King Arthur, Per∣ceval and Lancelot.

The French sometime after, had also their famous Romance of the He∣roic Deeds of Charles the Great, and his Paladins,* 2.31 said to be the Work of Turpin, Arch∣bishop of Rheims; but it was written above two Hundred Years after him, and was fol∣lowed by many more as false, which yet pleased the people of those times, more sim∣ple and ignorant yet than those who wrote them. Then none endeavouring to get good Memoirs to write true History, and Men finding matter more easily in their Fancy; Historians degenerated into Romancers, and the Latin Tongue fell into as much contempt as Truth had done before. Then the Trou∣badours, Comics and Contours of Provence,* 2.32 who were the writers that practis'd what is still call'd in the Southern parts of France, Le guay Saber, or the Gay Science, spread all over that Kingdom their Stories and new sort of Poetry, of all kinds, composed in the Roman Language, which was a mixtu••e of the Gallic. Tentonick, and Latin Tongues, in which the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 was superior, so that to distinguish it from that

usually spoken through the other parts of the Gauls, it kept the name of Roman.

The Germans, as Tacitus relates, us'd to sing the Heroic Deeds of Hercules, when they went to fight. The ancient Inhabitants of Denmark, Sweeden and Norway, had fabulous Stories which they engrav'd in old Runic Cha∣racters upon large Stones, of which some are still to be seen. The most usual diver∣sion at their Feasts was to sing in rhiming Verse the brave Deeds of their ancient Gi∣ants. These Stories us'd to draw Tears from the Eyes of the Company, and after that, being well warm'd with good Cheer, to their Tears succeeded Crys and Howlings, till all at last fell in confusion under the Table. The Kings and Princes of Denmark, Norway, and the neighbouring Countries had always their Scaldri, thus were call'd their Poets, who us'd extempore to make Verses in Rhime, embel∣lish'd with Fictions and Alle∣gories,* 2.33 upon all Memorable Events, and those were immedi∣ately learn'd, and sung by the People: Even some of the Kings and Queens of those Countries were Scaldri: As Olaus Wormius tells us.

The Indians, Iapanese and Chinese have an infinite Number of Poets and Fables, and the latter esteem almost Rustic any other way than that of Apologues in their Conversati∣on.

Even the Turks, to fit themselves for Love or War, have not only the Persian Roman∣ces, but Fables of their own devising, and will tell you that Roland was a Turk, whose Sword they still preserve at Bursa with Ve∣neration, relating the particulars of his Life, and the great things he did in the Levant.

The Americans are great Lovers of Fables, and near Canada the most wild among them, after their Feasts, generally desire the oldest or the greatest Wit of the Company to in∣vent and relate to them some strange Story. Beavers, Foxes, Racoons, and other Animals generally come in for a share in the Fiction, and the hearers are very attentive to their Adventures, the Relation of which they never interrupt but by their Applause, and thus Days and Nights are past with equal satisfaction to the Speaker and the Hearers. The People of Florida, Cumana and Perou excite themselves to work, and to martial exploits by Songs and fabulous Narrations of the great Atchievements of their Prede∣cessors. Whatever they relate of their Ori∣gin is full of Fictions; but in this those of Perou far out-lye the rest, and have their Poets to whom they give a Name that answers to that of Inventors. Also those of Madagascar have Men who stroul from House to House to recite their Composures; and those of Guinea have their tellers of Fables, like those of the Northern Parts of America.

Thus, as observes Huetius, from whom I have borrowed part of these Historical Ob∣servations on Fables, no Nation can well at∣tribute to it self the Original of them. Since all equally have been addicted to invent some in the most ancient Times; there is only this Difference, that what was the Fruit of the Ignorance of some Nations, even in Eu∣rope, has been that of the Politeness of the Persians, the Ionians and the Greeks.

When Rabelais lived all the foolish Ro∣mances that had been made in the barbarous Ages that preceded his were very much read; therefore, as he had a design to give a very great latitude to his Satyr, he thought he could not do better than to give it the form of those lying Stories, the better to secure himself from Danger, and at once show their Absurdities; also to cause his Book to be▪ the more read, having perceived that nothing pleased the People better than such Writings; the Wise and Learned be∣ing delighted by the Morality under the Al∣legories, and the rest by their odness. This was a good Design, and it proved as Ef∣fectual to make those who had any sence throw away those gross Fables stuffed with wretched Tales of Giants, Magicians and Adventurous Knights, as Miguel de Cervantes's Don Quixot proved in his Country to root out Knight-Errantry.

Thu•• Lucian before him, in his Story of

the Ass, enlarged afterwards by the Philo∣sopher Apuleius, had ridicul'd Lucius of Pa∣tras, and, to make it the more obvious, call∣ed that Fable by the name of that Mytho∣logist, who had writ a Book of strange Metamorphoses, which he foolishly believed to be true. Rabelais seems also to have imitated Lucian's true History, called so by its Author, by Antiphrasis; though some have thought that he had joyned it to the Trea∣tise in which he gives Precepts to write History well, as an Example of his Rules: But he declares at the beginning of that incredible History, That his only design was to expose many Poets, Historians and Philosophers, who, with inpunity, related false Things as Truth, and used, upon unfaithful Relations, to treat of foreign Countries, as Ctesias and Iambulus had done.

But our History is not altogether an Imi∣tation of that of Lucian, though it partici∣pates of its Nature. 'Tis Dramatic also, as that Greek Author says of some of his Works; a mixture of Dialogue and Comedy; of seri∣ous Matter and of the Ridicule; of Plays of all sorts, whether Trabeatae, Pretextatae, Palliatae, Togatae, Attellanae, Tabernariae, &c. 'Tis the Saty∣rica of the Greeks; the Archaea, the Media and the Nova Comoedia: For sometimes great things are treated by our Author in a manner equal to their Grandeur; at others they are brought down to the Level of the Planipedia:

Now and then little more than Mirth is meant: Often also particular Persons are re∣flected on by Name; at others they appear mask'd and disguised; and frequently, as in the new Comedy of the Greeks, the Cha∣racters are general. 'Tis likewise Hilaro∣tragoedia; that sort of Dramatic Composures which Rhinthon of of Taras,* 2.34 about the Reign of the first Ptolomy, is said to have in∣vented; which doubtless got him that Name of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 given him by Stephanus Bysantius, which some render Iocator, but is thought by Hesychius to signifie Scurra. This Rhinthon's Fables,* 2.35 of which Donatus makes mention in his Notes on Terence, and which Suidas says were Thirty eight in Number, still in being when Spephanus writ, were imitated at Rome: And as that Geographer says, that Rhinthon turn'd Tragic Things into Ridicule, an Italian Critic thinks that the Hilarotragoedia was only una tragedia contrafatta è di grave ridotta al piacevole;* 2.36 è di tragedia, per dir cosi, fatta Comedia; that is, a Tragedy turn'd into a Comedy or a Farce.* 2.37 But the Learned Spanheim more properly thinks that Rhinthon had joined the comic Mirth of the Greek▪ Satyric Plays and Interludes to the gravity of Trage∣dy

which may by that have got the name of Mixta.

Our Rabelais's Work is also a Satyr of the kind of those which from Menippus were call'd Menippaean by his imitator Varro, the most learned among the Romans; having given that Name to that which he made, because, like that Cynic Philosopher, in it he had treated of grave Mat∣ters in a merry joking Style. That Satyr,* 2.38 or as Tully calls it, that Poema varium et elegans was at once a mixture of Prose and several sorts of Verse; of Greek and of Latin; of Philology and of Philosophy. That Orator makes him give some account of its design and variety; and without Doubt that Work was far more esteemable than the Examples which he follow'd; if, as Diogenes Laertius says, those of Menip∣pus were made merely to excite Men to Laugh, consisting chiefly of Parodiae, or Verses out of famous Authors, and generally Ho∣mer, Euripides and such others inverted, and tagg'd together sometimes like the Cento of Ausonius, and often in the Nature of our Mock Songs. Yet since Strabo says that by them he got the Name of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or

Ioco-serius,* 2.39 we may believe that there was a morality in them; but that, as in our Rabelais, not being ob∣vious, some thought them trifling; like ma∣ny in our Age who find it much easier to Judge and find fault than to understand.

I could wish that among the other sorts of Writing which, in something, have been imitated by our Author, I might not rec∣kon Petronius Arbiter; Yet I only say this as to his immodesty; for, otherwise, as that Consul under some Amorous Fictions has concealed a close and Ingenious Satyr on the vices that reign'd in Nero's Court, and was as nice and good a Judge of polite Learning as of dissolute Pleasures, without doubt he is to be follow'd and admir'd: And indeed his Fable was esteem'd to be like the Greek Satyric Poems which Plato says consisted of Fictions whose hidden sence differ'd very much from the superficial signification of the Words; since Macrobius, while he distin∣guishes Fables, made barely to please from those that at once divert and instruct, has placed that of Petronius among the latter.

Our Author's Works are also an Imitation of Democritus and of Socrates, if we may compare Writings with Actions; for those two Philosophers used to be still merry, and freely ridicul'd what ever was a fit Subject of Rallery: For this reason Quintilian says of the latter, Etiam vita unversa Ironiam habere

videtur, qualis est vita Socratis; and that great Philosopher, who had deserved the Name of the Wisest of Men, was called Scurra by Zeno, as Tully renders it: Yet Plato and Xeno∣phon his Scholars have not only transmitted to us some of his admirable expressions but also imitated them;* 2.40 and we may apply to Rabelais what Vavassor said of that wise Man; Constans ac perpetuus irrisor Mortalium.

In this, his Work somewhat differs from the greatest part of the Satires of the Roman••; for he seldom leaves his Ridiculing for their angry Railing. Their chief Design is less to rally than excite either Indignation or Ha∣tred, facit indignatio versum. Which caused an Ancient Grammarian to say,* 2.41 Satyra dicitur carmen apud Romanos nunc quidem maledicum; thus calling Satire a railing or slandering Poem:* 2.42 And Ovid excu∣sing himself for not having writ any, gives it the Epithete of biting.

Non ego mordaci distrinxi carmine quem∣quam. Nec meus ullius crimina versus habet.

Accordingly the Authors of the Roman Satires generally keep the Character of Censors. Horace has given the gayest Air of them all to his Satires, and in that of Nasidienus, the

Description of the fight between Sarmentus and Messius, as also in some others, has af∣fected a comic Style; he also tells us that Satyr ought to be sometimes treated gayly, and at others sullenly or gravely; Et sermone o∣pus est modo tristi saepe jocoso. Yet in other places he speaks of the Sharpness of his Satyrs, and owns that they were an ill-natur'd or malici∣ous kind of Writing.

Lib. 2. Sat 1. —tristi laedere versu, Pantolabum scurram, Nomentanum{que} nepotem.

Then he takes notice of the Complaint of some against him.

—Lividus & mordax videor tibi.

He also observes that 'tis not enough to make a hearer laugh.

Ergo non satis est risu diducere rictum, Auditoris.

Sat. 10. Lib. 1.

Far from this, he saith it is a commenda∣ble thing to fill a Man with shame, and as he calls it, to bark at him if he deserves it.

Si quis opprobiis dignum latraverit.—

This causes another Satyrist speaking of Lucilius, whose Imitator he was as well as Horace, to say,

Ense velut stricto, quoties Lucilius ardens Infremuit, rubet auditor cui frigida mens Criminibus.— Juvenal Sat 1.

The same in another place, reflecting on the deprav'd manners of his Age, crys, Difficile est Satyram non scribere. By which he sufficiently shows what was the Object and Design of those sorts of Poems.

Now Rabelais chiefly pursues his Subject by jesting and exposing, ridiculing and de∣spising what he thinks deserves such an u∣sage; and 'tis but seldom that he makes use of railing, or sullen biting Reproofs. Yet as he has done it in some places, we may well say that his Work hath something of the Roman Satyr.

In short, 'tis a mixture, or if I may use the Expression, an Ollio of all the Merry, Serious, Satyrical and diverting ways of Writing, that have hitherto been us'd. But still Mirth is predominant in the Composition, and like a pleasing Tartness, gives the whole such a relish,* 2.43 that we ever feed on it with an eager Appetite, and can never be cloy'd with it. 'Tis Farce, as our Laureat in his late curious Pre∣face,

concerning that way of Writing, ju∣diciously observes of some of Ben Iohnson's, but such Farce, as bequeaths that Blessing (pronounc'd by Horace) on him that shall at∣tempt the like.

—sudet multum frustra{que} laboret Ausus idem.

For, as 'tis there observ'd, the Business of Farce extends beyond Nature and Probabi∣lity. But then there are so few improbabi∣lities that will appear pleasant in the Repre∣sentation, that it will strain the best Inven∣tion to find them out, and require the nicest Judgment to manage them when they are conceiv'd. Extravagant and monstruous Fan∣cies are but sick Dreams that rather torment than divert the Mind, but when Extrava∣gancy and Improbability happen to please at all, they do it to purpose, because they strike our Thought with greatest Surprize.

Pasquier, the most judicious Critick that France had in his Time, was very apprehen∣sive of this, and illustrates it with two Ex∣amples that concern too much our Author, and the Point in Question, not to be inserted here. 'Tis in one of his Letters to the Poet Ronsard.* 2.44 Il n'y a cel••y de nous qui ne scache combien le d••cte Rabelais en folastrant sagement sur son Gargantua et Pantagru∣el

gaigna de grace parmy le peuple. Il se trouua peu apres deux Singes qui se persuaderent d' en pouuoir faire tout autant; l' un sou••s le nom de Leon l' Adulfy en ses propos rustiques. L'au∣tre sans nom en son Livre des Fanfrelu∣ches. Mais autant y profita l'un que l'autre; s' estant la memoire de ces deux Livres perdue.

That is; All know to what degree the learned Rabelais gain'd the Esteem of the Nation by his wise Drolling on his Gargantua and Pantagruel; soon after started up a couple of Apes who conceived that they could do as much; viz. Leon l' Adulfy in his Propos Rustiques, and the Anonymous Author of Fanfreluches. But as ill did the one succeed as the other; the Memory of those two Books being lost.

This Work of Rabelais is doubtless an Original by imitating and joyning in one so many others. To imitate it, is not only periculosae plenu•• opus aleae, but almost an im∣possible task; nor is it easily to be defin'd. We see that it is Historical, Romantic, Al∣legorical, Comical, Satirical; But as some∣times all these kinds of Writing are united in one Passage, a•• others they appear seve∣rally.

I might say that it is partly Dramatic: For there appears in it a great deal of Action: The Dialogues, of which it is full, are as many lively Scenes: Europe is the

Stage, and all Mankind is the Subject: The Author with his Witty Drolling Prologues comes in between every act, as the Silen•• and the Satyri did in the Greek Satyric Plays. Or, if you had rather have it so, he sup∣plys the place of the Chorus in some of the Old Comedies: The five Books answer exactly the five Acts; and it might perhaps as easily be made appear by a D' acier that he has manag'd his Drama regularly, as by a Bossu that the Father of Epic Poetry has observ∣ed a Just Conduct in his Iliads.

It has the Form of an History, or rather of Romances, which it tacitly ridicules, I mean such of them as those Ages produced which preceded the Restoration of Learning, that chiefly happened when our Author lived; your Amadis de Gaule, Lancelot du Lac, Tristan, Kyrie Eleison of Montauban, &c. For then Kyrie Eleison and Deuteronomy were taken for the names of Saints; somewhat like the Epito∣mizers of Gesner's Bibliotheque, who have a∣scribed Amadis to one Acuerdo Olvido, not knowing that these two Words, which they found on the Title page of the French version of that Book, were the Translators Spanish Motto, that signifies Remembrance, Ob∣livion. Our Author seems to have mimick'd those Books, even in their Titles, in their Division into Chapters, and in the odd Accounts of their Contents. I am much mistaken if in many places he has not also affected

their Style; tho in others he displays all the Purity and Elegancy which the French-Tongue, which he has much improved, had at that Time.

As for the mixture of odd, Burlesque, Bar∣barous, Latin, Greek and obsolete Words which is seen in his Book, 'tis justifiable, as it serves to add to the Diversion of the Reader, pleased generally the more, the greater is the Variety, principally in so odd a Work.

About Twenty Years before it was com∣posed, Theophilus Folengi a Monk, born at Mantua of a Noble Family, who is hardly known now otherwise than by the name of Merlinus Coccaius, had put out his Liber Maca∣ronicorum, which is a Poetical Rhapsody made up of Words of different Languages, and treating of pleasant Matters in a Comical Style: The word Macarone in Italian signifies a Jolly Clown, and Macaroni a sort of Cakes made with course Meal, Eggs and Cheese,* 2.45 as Thomasin ob∣serves. He published also ano∣ther Work which he called Il libro della Gatta in the same Style, and another only Maca∣ronic in part, called Chaos del tri per uno.

A learned Critic has esteem∣ed that sort of Writing to be a third kind of Burlesque.* 2.46 Nor was Folengi only followed by his Country-men, as Gau∣rinus Capella in his Macarone de

Rimini against Cabri Ré de Gogue magogue, in 1526, and Caesar Vrsinus, who calls him∣self Stopinus in his Capriccia Macaronica 1536, For the learned William Drummond Author of the History of Scotland, and of some divine Poems, has left us an ingenious Macaronie Poem called Polemo-Middinia, printed at the Theatre at Oxford, 1691.

Rabelais has imitated and improved some fine Passages of that of Coccaius, as well as his Style; Though Mr. Baillet in his Iuge∣ment des Scavans, thinks that it would be an impossible Task to preserve its Beauties in a Translation.

The Italians affect those mixt sorts of Lan∣guages in their Burlesque Poetry. They have one sort which they call Pedantesca from the Name of the Persons of whom it most treats 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, en∣tituled Hipnerotomachia di Polifilo; Cioè, com∣battimento 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 Pro∣vensale Words, even whole Lines of the

latter, ponendovene anche▪ de i versi in••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, Ve∣ronese, Genouese, Napolitana, Romana, Ciciliana, Sarda, &c, they sometimes have mixed seve∣ral 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 de∣ny that they mixt Words and Verses of dif∣ferent kinds that has read of their Satura Lanx, or the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Diomedes says, Saty∣ra 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 Pu∣nic 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 Au∣thor made a Dictionary of them; his Bio∣grapher 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 Aristo∣phanes 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 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, from which the Latin have made coaxare; then 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, which are the various Voices of Birds. Then he has Diminutives, as 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉; and if Rabelais has very long Words, so has Aristophanes, as his 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and many others, among which, the longest is made up of twenty eight, and begins by 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. &c. Also in the Anthologia, Grammarians are call'd 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and there is an Epigram by an ancient Poet, all in such Burlesque a∣gainst Philosophers, which begins thus,

O 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, &c.

A great number of long Decomposites are found in Greek Authors, and if the Latins have us'd them less, 'tis 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, Pla∣gipatide, 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 a∣mong the Greeks have done; those Witti∣cisms being a part of the Salt, which they so much desir'd in all Jocose and Satyrical Com∣posures.

As for the Puns, Clenches, Conundrums, Quib∣bles, 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 ingeni∣ous 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 ne∣cessary to mention the great Tully, and ma∣ny more among the Ancients that allowed themselves the Freedom of using them; many of those dropt in Conversation by that Orator having been thought w••••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 va∣rious Images which he gives of the same Things, or the long train of verbs, or sub∣stantives, which he often sets together; In∣deed in another Work they might be thought redundant. Ambiti••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 be∣neficial to the Body, and to the Mind, and laughing one of the distinguishing Chara∣cters of Mankind, our Author may be said not to have advantag'd the World a little in composing this merry Treatise. He justi∣fies himself in his Dedication to Cardinal Chastillon for his Comical Expressions, by representing the ease which many discon∣late and sick persons had received by them; and he say•• before his first Book Le R••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 Ene∣my to Burlesque has said que ce n'estoit pas∣peu

meriter du genre humain, que de réjouir quel∣quefois 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 conscri∣bere qui potest pros••ribere.

Horace afte•• he has said, that it is not enough to make a Hearer laugh, 〈◊〉〈◊〉, & est quaedam haec quoque v••••tus.

Nor has 〈…〉〈…〉 only aim'd at Mirth; tho he has partly ••••de it subse••vient to his chief Design. He kn••w ••ha•• the learned and the ••gnorant, by different motives, delight in Fables, and that the love of Mirth being universal, the only way to cause his senti∣ments to be most known and followed, was to give them a merry Dress. The Counsel of Trent begun to ••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 1536, the Cardinal of Trent,* 2.47 who was a German came thither to press the Pope to a Council, and in our Author's presence said to Cardinal Du Bellay that the Pope

refused to grant a Council, but that he would repent it, for the Christian Prin∣ces would take away what they had gi∣ven to the Church. The universal Cry was for the Restitution of the C••p to the Layety, and of Marriage, to the Clergy; a∣gainst Indulgences, Pardons &c. This caused Rabelais to put out these Pithagorical Symhols as he calls them: That while some of the great ones privately and the Protestants publickly, were indeavouring a thorough-Re∣formation, he might insinuate a Contempt of the Church of Rome's Fopperies ch••efly in the Clergy of France, and those that were at the Council of Trent, as also in such of the Layety as had wit enough to find out his meaning. And this is what he means, in the Prologue to his 3. Book, by the comical Account which he gives of Diogenes, who seeing the Inhabitants of Corinth all very busy in their preparations for the War, and himself not invited to help them, roul'd and tossed about his Tub, that he might not be said to be Idle. For, says Rabelais, I held it not a little disgraceful to be only an Idle Spe∣ctator of so many valorous eloquent and warlike Persons who in the View and Sight of all Europe, act this Notable Interlude or Tragicomedy. By the word, Eloquent, we may easily Judge that this notable Interlude is the Council then sitting. He knew that in 1534, Calvin hav∣ing dedicated his Institution to Francis the I.

the Bigots about him cunningly perswaded that King not to read that excellent Work nor its incomparable Preface; tho he was o∣therwise not very religious, having made a League with the Turks, and joyned his Fleet to that of Barbarossa, as also charg'd his Children in 1535 on pain of incurring his Curse to revenge his wrongs on Charles the V. whom he used to call Satan's eldest Son. So,* 2.48 partly that his Book might not have the same fate, he made it myst∣erious; and indeed that King had it read to him inspight of those who told him it was heretical. But he was so imbroyl'd in Wars that perhaps he dar'd not favour the Reform'd, for fear of being served by the Pope like the King of Navarre. However even his Mother Loyse de Savoye, what Di∣votion soever she shew'd to Popish Fopperies, seems to have had but little Respect for them. For, in her Journal writ with her own hand and kept still in the Chambredes Comptes at Paris are found these words con∣cerning St. Francis de Paule; Frere Francois de Paule fu••parmoy canonisé; a tout le, moins jenpayay la Taxe; that is, Fryar-John de Paule was sainted by me; at least I paid the Fees For making him a Saint. Yet our Author wrote not so darkly but that the Ingenious of that Age could know his meaning, for the very anti∣doted Conundrums which are the 2. Chapter,

of his first Book, show that he treated of Religion, as he had said in the Prologue before it. The first Stanza may perhaps be only designed to make the rest pass for a Banter; but the second mentions the Pope and Calvin plainly; the first, whose Slipper 'tis more meritorious to kiss than to gain Pardons; and the other, from the depth issued were they fish for Roaches, that is, the Lake at Geneva, who said, Sirs, for God's sake let us forbear doing this; in the French, Qui dit Messieurs pour Dieu nous en gardons. I have not the leasure to examin now the other Stanzaes, though I can explain some of them. But to show that Rabelais was understood when he writ, we need but read the Verses printed in the French before his second Book; they are by Hugues Salel, a Man of great Wit and Learn∣ing, who, as I have said, had translated Homer's Iliads: In them he encourages the Author to write on, and tells him, that under a pleasing Foundation he had so well de∣scrib'd useful Matters, that if he was not re∣warded here below, he should be rewarded in Heaven.

Gross Superstition proceeds from Igno∣rance; so next to the First he exposes the Latter; but I need not come to particulars: I may say that he has satirised all sorts of Vice, and consequently all sorts of Men; we find them all promiscuously on his Scene, as in Bay's grand Dance in the Rehearsal,

Kings, Cardinals, Ladies, Aldermen, Sol∣diers, &c.

He saw that Vice was not to be conquer'd in a Declamatory War, and that the angry railing Lectures of some well-meaning Men, were seldom as effectual to make it give Ground, as the gay yet pointed Ralleries of those who seem unconcern'd; the latter con∣vincing us effectually, while the others with their passionate Invectives perswade ••s of nothing but that they are too angry to direct others.

This gay way of moralizing has also nothing of the dry mortifying method of those Philosophers who, striving to demonstrate their Principles by Causes and a long Series of Arguments, only rack the mind; but its Art and delicacy is not perceived by every Rea∣der: Consequently many People will not easily find out the inward Beauties of the Works of Rabelais; But he did not intend that every one should perceive them; tho every one may be extreamly diverted by the outward and obvious Wit and Humour. We may say of those hidden graces, what a Learned Man says of those in Horace's Sa∣tires.* 2.49 Quae cum animae plebeiae percurrunt, nec venustatem vident, nec necessitatem argumenti intelli∣gunt. Eruditi, praeter incredibilem leporem, ad principium quo nititur recurrunt. The figure Oximorum by which things at

first appear foolish, tho they are sharp and witty, is such a Master pice in Rhetoric as can be perceived by none but the Skill∣full. Painting has its Grotesque and bold Touches which seem irregular to the Vul∣gar, only pleased with their odness; while Masters, thro the antic Features and rough Strokes, discover an exact Proportion, a Soft∣ness and a Boldness together, which charm them to an unspeakable degree. So in art∣ful Jests and Ironies, in that lusus animi and ju∣dicious extravagance, what seems mean and ab∣surd is most in sight and strikes the Vulgar; but better Judgments under that course outside discover exquisite Wit, just and sublime Thoughts, vast Learning, and the most pro∣found Reasonings of Philosophy. Our Au∣thor's first Prologue has lead me to this Ob∣servation, by that which he makes concerning Socrates. Sorbiere, who was a Man not much given to praise the Li∣ving,* 2.50 and much less the Dead, ap∣plys this to Rabelais, owning that his Satire is the most learned and universal that ever was writ; and that it also so powerfully inclines our Minds to Mirth, that almost all those whom he had known, that had been much conversant with it, had gain'd by it's means a Method of thinking agreably on the most profound and melancholic Matters. Thus it teaches us to bear Adversities gallantly, and to make them our di∣version 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.

'Tis true, that those whose Temper en∣clines 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 pro∣duce on all sorts of Subjects an infinite num∣ber▪ of pleasant Reflections. In those places that are most Dangerous, a judicious Reader will curb his Thoughts and Desires, consider∣ing that the way is slippery, and thus will ea∣sily be safe, with wise Refections, moderating his Affections. 'Tis 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,* 2.51 to whom, as Aulus Gel∣lius 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 sub∣stance of the most venemous Weeds.* 2.52 The Learned Iesuit, who, in favour of his Friend Balsac, writ a Trea∣tise against Burlesque, cannot forbear granting as much;* 2.53 since he says, Scriptores nostri quovis e genere librorum, etiam non optimorum, aucupantur vti∣litatem aliquam, & omnes undique stosculos deli∣bant; quo fere pacto princeps olim Poetarum le∣gere 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 accom∣modate 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 se∣veral Things; since they follow'd Customs and Manners which were then generally re∣ceiv'd, though now they seem to us impro∣per or unjust. To discover all the Beauties in their Works, we must a while lay aside the Thoughts of our Practice, if it contra∣dicts theirs; otherwise, all Books will be ve∣ry 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;* 2.54 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 im∣pius homo quàm publicè suis nefariis libellis p••sti∣lens, &c. Neque semel deploravi hominis sortem, qui in tantâ literarum luce tam densis sese vi••ic∣rum 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 Au∣thor whom he accuses of filching, in his 1st. Prologue. 'Tis 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, Tristi{que} vultu vendunt sanctimonias, Censuram sibi quandam, & Tyrannidem occupant, Pavidam{que} plebem territant minaciis.

In which Verses by the way, he has made use of a word, which an anci∣ent Critic,* 2.55 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 bold∣ness 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: Al∣terum, elegans, urbanum, ingeniosum, facetum. Quo genere non modo Plautus noster & Attico∣rum 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 soft∣ned, it would more justly, and more ge∣nerally 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 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 In∣genious ought not to be deprived of it. Lu∣cian's works, notwithstanding a Thousand Passages in them, against Modesty and Re∣ligion, 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 pro∣stituted 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 im∣becillitatis 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,* 2.56 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; pro∣vided, as I have said, that a Reader curb his Thoughts in some few Passages; which a Man of Sense will easily do, and I recom∣mend it to no others.

PETER MOTTEUX.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Brantosme. Ec-Beza Hist. cles.
• * 1.2

  Brantosme. Du∣pleix. Sponde. Maimbourg. Be∣za.
• * 1.3

  Book 2. Chap. 9
• * 1.4

  Book 3. Ch. 7.
• * 1.5

  Lapuce a'l oreille
• * 1.6

  Hist. de Iean Crespin.
• * 2.1

  Book 2. Chap. 9.
• * 2.2

  Book 1. Chap. 3.
• * 2.3

  Book 1. Ch. 8.
• * 2.4

  Book 1. Ch. 13.
• * 2.5

  Book 1. Ch. 33.
• * 2.6

  Oeuures De. d•• Patru. V. 2. 1692.
• * 2.7

  Epist. de Ra∣belais.
• * 2.8

  Mezeray. Hardouinde Perefix. hist. Henry IV.
• * 2.9

  Ch. 21. Book 1
• * 2.10

  Ch. 33. Book 1.
• * 2.11

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 potestas, apud Suidam.
• * 2.12

  Chap. 14. Book 1.
• * 2.13

  Ch. 15. Book 1.
• * 2.14

  Ch. 15. and 16.
• * 2.15

  Chap. 17. Book 1.
• * 2.16

  Hist. de Iean Crespin.
• * 2.17

  Chap. 25. Book 1.
• * 2.18

  Hist. de Na∣var. par C. Se∣cretaire & In∣terpret. du Roy.
• * 2.19

  Memoires de Mar∣tin du Bellay.
• * 2.20

  Vide Thuan. Sa∣marthan. Ciacon. Du Bouchet. d' Aubigné, lib. 4. Sponde in annal. Hist. Eccles. Beza. Petrameller.
• * 2.21

  Lib. 4. Epist. Dedicat.
• * 2.22

  Hist. de Na∣varre.
• * 2.23

  B. 1. Ch. 40.
• * 2.24

  Book 2. Chap. 10, 11, 13, 14.
• * 2.25

  Book 2. Chap. 23.
• * 2.26

  Mem. de Guil. du Bellay.
• * 2.27

  Book 2. Ch. 32.
• * 2.28

  Memoires de Guil. du Bellay. Liv. 10.
• * 2.29

  Beza Hist. Eccles.
• * 2.30

  Quia sciunt in∣imicam esse na∣turae apertam nudamque expositionem sui; quae, sicut vulgaribus hominum sensibus intellectum sui vario rerum teg∣mine operimento{que} substraxit, ita à prudentibus ar cana sua voluit per fabulosa tractari. Macrob. In somn. Scip. Lib. 1.
• * 2.31

  Huet Orig. des Romans.
• * 2.32

  Iean de No∣stredame. Vie∣des Poetes Pro∣ven••aux.
• * 2.33

  Appendix de Literaturâ Runicâ.
• * 2.34

  Suidas, in 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.
• * 2.35

  Ad Prolog. Adelph.
• * 2.36

  Ragion. dello Academ. Al∣dean.
• * 2.37

  Preface sur les Caesars de Iuli-
• * 2.38

  Et tamen in illis veteribus nostris, quae Menippum imitati, non inter∣pretati, quadam hilaritate consper∣simus, multa ad∣mista ex intimâ philosophiâ, multa dialecticè dicta. Academ. Quaest. L. 1.
• * 2.39

  Lib. 16.
• * 2.40

  De Dictione Ludicra.
• * 2.41

  Iuven. Satyr. 1.
• * 2.42

  Diomed. Lib. 3. Gram.
• * 2.43

  Mr. Tate, Pre∣face to a Duke and no Duke.
• * 2.44

  Lettr. de Pas∣quier Liv. 1.
• * 2.45

  Eleg. p. 72.
• * 2.46

  Naudé Iuge∣ment des pie∣ces contre Ma∣zarin.
• * 2.47

  Lettres de Rabelais a l' Evesque de Maille∣zais.
• * 2.48

  Memoires de Castelnau.
• * 2.49

  Heinsius de Satyra Hora∣tiana.
• * 2.50

  Sorberiana.
• * 2.51

  Lib. 17. Cap. 16.
• * 2.52

  Lib. 21. Cap. 13.
• * 2.53

  F. Vavassor. de Ludicra Dicti∣one.
• * 2.54

  In fab. Hamel. p. 31.
• * 2.55

  Cum 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 mirati sumus, incur∣vicervicum vix a risu de∣fendimus. Quintilian.
• * 2.56

  Ioan. Saresberien∣sis, in Policratico. de. Nugis Curial.