The third book of the works of Mr. Francis Rabelais, Doctor in Physick containing the heroick deeds of Pantagruel the son of Gargantua / now faithfully translated into English by the unimitable pen of Sir Thomas Urwhart.

CHAP. XIII. How Pantagruel adviseth Panurge to try the future good or bad luck of his Marriage by Dreams. (Book 13)

NOW seeing we cannot agree toge∣ther in the manner of expounding or interpreting the Sense of the Virgilian Lots, let us bend our course another way, and try a new sort of Divination. Of what kind? (asked Panurge.) Of a good Ancient and and Authentick Fashion, (answered Pantagruel) it is by Dreams: For in Dreaming such Circumstances and Conditions being thereto adhibited, as are clearly enough described by Hip∣pocrates, in Lib. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, by Plato, Plo∣tin, Iamblicus, Sinesius, Aristotle, Xenophon, Galene, Plutarch, Artemidorus, Valdianus, He∣rophilus, G. Calaper, Theocritus, Pliny, Athe∣naeus,

and others, the Soul doth often times foresee what is to come.

How true this is, you may conceive by a very vulgar and familiar Example; as when you see that at such a time as Suck∣ling Babes, well nourished, fed and fo∣stred with good Milk, sleep soundly and profoundly, the Nurses in the interim get leave to sport themselves, and are li∣centiated to recreate their Fancies at what Range to them shall seem most fitting and expedient; their Presence, Sedulity and Attendance on the Cradle being, during all that space, held unnecessary.

Even just so, when our Body is at rest, that the Concoction is every where ac∣complished, and that, till it awake, it lacks for nothing, our Soul delighteth to disport it self, and is well-pleased in that Frolick to take a review of its Native Country, which is the Heavens, where it receiveth a most notable Participation of its first beginning with an Imbuement from its Divine Source, and in Contem∣plation of that Infinite and Intellectual Sphere, whereof the Center is every where, and the Circumference in no place of the universal World, to wit, God, according to the Doctrine of Hermes Tris∣megistus, to whom no new thing hapneth, whom nothing that is past escapeth, and

unto whom all things are alike present, remarketh not only what is preterit, and gone in the inferiour Course and Agitati∣on of sublunary matters, but withal taketh notice what is to come; then bringing a Relation of those future Events unto the Body by the outward Senses and exterior Organs, it is divulged abroad unto the hea••ing of others. Whereupon the Own∣er of that Soul deserveth to be termed a Vatiemator, or Prophet.

Nevertheless the truth is, that the Soul is seldom able to report those things in such Sincerity as it hath seen them, by reason of the Imperfection and Frailty of the Corporeal Senses, which obstruct the effectuating of that Office; even as the Moon doth not communicate unto▪ this Earth of ours that Light which she re∣ceiveth from the Sun with so much Splen∣dor, Heat, Vigour, Purity and Liveliness as it was given her. Hence it is requi∣site for the better reading, explaining and unfolding of these Somniatory Vaticiations and Predictions of that nature, that a dexterous, learned, skilful, wise, industri∣ous, expert, rational and peremptory Ex∣pounder or Interpreter be pitched upon, such a one as by the Greeks is called Oni∣rocrit, or Oniropolist.

For this cause Heraclitus was wont to say, that nothing is by Dreams revealed to us, that nothing is by Dreams conceal∣ed from us, and that only we thereby have a mystical Signification and secret Evidence of things to come, either for own prosperous or unlucky Fortune, or for the favourable or disastrous Success of another. The Sacred Scriptures testifie no less, and profane Histories assure us of it, in both which are exposed to our view a thousand several kinds of strange Adventures, which have befallen pat according to the nature of the Dream, and that as well to the Party Dreamer as to others. The Atlantick People, and those that inhabit the Land of Thasos, (one of the Cyclades) are of this grand Commodity deprived; for in their Coun∣tries none yet ever dreamed. Of this sort Cleon of Daulia, Thrasymedes; and in our days the Learned Frenchman Villa∣novanus, neither of all which knew what Dreaming was.

Fail not therefore to morrow, when the jolly and fair Aurora with her rosie Fin∣gers draweth aside the Curtains of the Night, to drive away the sable Shades of Darkness, to bend your Spirits wholly to the task of sleeping sound, and thereto ap∣ply your self. In the mean while you

must denude your Mind of every Hu∣mane Passion or Affection, such as are Love and Hatred, Fear and Hope; for as of old the great Vaticinator, most fa∣mous and renowned Prophet Proteus was not able in his Disguise or Transformation into Fire, Water, a Tyger, a Dragon, and other such like uncouth Shapes and Visors to presage any thing that was to come, till he was restored to his own first natu∣ral and kindly Form. Just so doth Man; for at his reception of the Art of Divi∣nation, and Faculty of prognosticating future things, that part in him which is the most Divine, (to wit, the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or Mens) must be calm, peaceable, untroubled, quiet, still, husht, and not imbusied or distracted with Foreign, Soul-disturbing Pre••arbati∣ons. I am content, (quoth Panurge.) But I pray you, Sir, must I this Evening, e're I go to Bed, eat much or little? I do not ask this without Cause: For if I sup not well, large, round and amply, my sleeping is not worth a sorked Turnep; all the Night long I then but dose and rave, and in my stumbering Fits talk idle Nonsence▪ my Thoughts being in a dull brown Stu∣dy, and as deep in their Dumps as is my Belly hollow.

Not to sup (answered Pantagruel) were best for you, considering the state of your Complexion, and healthy Consti∣tution of your Body. A certain very an∣cient Prophet named Amphiaraus, wished such as had a mind by Dreams to be im∣bued with any Oracles, for Four and Twenty Hours to taste no Victuals, and to abstain from Wine three days together; yet shall not you be put to such a sharp, hard, rigorous and extream sparing Diet.

I am truly right apt to believe, that a Man whose Stomach is repleat with va∣rious Cheer, and in a manner surfeited with drinking, is hardly able to conceive aright of Spiritual things; yet am not I of the Opinion of those, who after long and pertinacious Fastings, think by such means to enter more profoundly into the Speculation of Celestial Mysteries. You may very well remember how my Father Gargantua, (whom here for Honour sake I name) hath often told us, that the Wri∣tings of abstinent, abstemious, and long∣fasting Hermits, were every whit as salt∣less, dry, jejune and insipid, as were there Bodies when they did compose them. It is a most difficult thing for the Spirits to be in a good plight, serene and lively, when there is nothing in the Body but a kind of Voidness and Inanity: Seeing

the Philosophers with the Physicians joint∣ly affirm, that the Spirits which are styled Animal, spring from, and have their con∣stant practice in, and through the Arteri∣al Blood, refin'd and purify'd to the Life within the admirable N••t, which wonder∣fully framed lieth under the Ventricles and Tunnels of the Brain. He gave us al∣so the Example of the Philosopher, who, when he thought most seriously to have withdrawn himself unto a solitary Privacy, far from the rusling clutterments of the tu∣multuous and confused World, the better to improve his Theory, to contrive, com∣ment and ratiocinate, was, notwithstand∣ing his uttermost endeavours to free himself from all untoward noises, surrounded and environ'd about so with the barking of Currs, bawling of Mastiffs, bleating of Sheep, prating of Parrets, tatling of Jack∣daws grunting of Swine, girning of Boars, yelping of Foxes, mewing of Cats, cheeping of Mice, squeaking of Weasils, croaking of Frogs, crowing of Cocks, kekling of Hens, calling of Partridges, chanting of Swans, chattering of Jays, peeping of Chickens, singing of Larks, creaking of Geese, chirping of Swallows, clucking of Moorfowls, cucking of Cuc∣kows, bumling of Bees, rammage of Hawks, chi••ming of Linots, croaking of

Ravens, screeching of Owls, whicking of Pigs, gushing of Hogs, curring of Pigeons, grumbling of Cushet-doves, howling of Panthers, curkling of Quails, chirping of Sparrows, crackling of Crows, nuzzing of Camels, wheening of Whelps, buzzing of Dromedaries, mumbling of Rabets, cricking of Ferrets, humming of Wasps, mioling of Tygers, bruzzing of Bears, sussing of Kitnings, clamring of Scarfes, whimpring of Fullmarts, boing of Buffalos, warbling of Nightingales, qua∣vering of Meavises, drintling of Turkies, coniating of Storks, frantling of Peacocks, clattering of Mag-pyes, murmuring of Stock-doves, crouting of Cormorants, cig∣ling of Locusts, charming of Beagles, guarring of Puppies, snarling of Messens, rantling of Rats, guerieting of Apes, snut∣tering of Monkies, pioling of Pelicanes, quecking of Ducks, yelling of Wolves, roaring of Lions, neighing of Horses, crying of Elephants, hissing of Serpents; and wailing of Turtles, that he was much more troubled, than if he had been in the middle of the Crowd at the Fair of Fontenoy or Niort.

Just so is it with those who are tormen∣ted with the grievous pangs of Hunger; the Stomach begins to gnaw, (and bark as it were) the Eyes to look dim, and the

Veins, by greedily sucking some refection to themselves from the proper substance of all the Members of a Fleshy Consistence; violently pull down and draw back that vagrant, roaming Spirit, careless and ne∣glecting of his Nurse and natural Host, which is the Body. As when a Hawk up∣on the Fist, willing to take her Flight by a soaring aloft into the open spacious Air, is on a sudden drawn back by a Leash tied to her Feet.

To this purpose also did he alledge un∣to us the Authority of Homer, the Father of all Philosophy, who said, that the Grecians did not put an end to their mournful mood for the Death of Patroclus, the most intimate Friend of Achilles, till Hunger in a rage declared her self, and their Bellies protested to furnish no more Tears unto their Grief. For from Bodies emptied and mecerated by long Fasting, there could not be such supply of Moi∣sture and brackish Drops, as might be pro∣per on that occasion.

Mediocrity at all times is commen∣dable; nor in this case are you to aban∣don it. You may take a little Supper▪ but thereat must you not eat of a Hare▪ nor of any other Flesh: You are likewise to abstain from Beans, from the Preak, (by some called the Polyp) as also from Cole∣worts,

Cabbidge, and all other such like windy Victuals, which may endanger the troubling of your Brains, and the dim∣ning or casting a kind of Mist over your Animal Spirits: For as a Looking-glass cannot exhibit the Semblance or Repre∣sentation of the Object set before it, and exposed, to have its Image to the life ex∣pressed, if that the polish'd sleekedness thereof be darken'd by gross Breathings, dampish Vapours, and foggy, thick, in∣fectious Exhalations; even so the Fancy cannot well receive the impression of the likeness of those things, which Divinati∣on doth afford by Dreams, if any way the Body be annoyed or troubled with the fumish Steam of Meat, which it had ta∣ken in a while before; because betwixt these two there still hath been a mutual Sympathy and Fellow-feeling, of an in∣dissolubly knit Affection. You shall eat good Eusebian and Bergamot-Pears, one Apple of the short-shank Pepin-kind, a parcel of the little Plums of Tours, and some few Cherries of the growth of my Orchard: Nor shall you need to fear, that thereupon will ensue doubtful Dreams, fal∣lacious, uncertain, and not to be trusted to, as by some Peripatetick Philosophers hath been related; for that, say they, Men do more copiously in the Season of

Harvest feed on Fruitages, then at any other time. The same is mystically taught us by the ancient Prophets and Poets, who alledge, That all vain and deceitful Dreams lie hid and in covert, under the Leaves which are spread on the ground: by reason that the Leaves fall from the Trees, in the Autumnal Quarter: for the natural fer∣vour, which abounding in ripe, fresh, recent Fruits, cometh by the quickness of its ebullition, to be with ease evapora∣ted into the Animal parts of the dream∣ing Person (the Experiment is obvious in most) is a pretty while before it be expi∣red, dissolved, and evanished. As for your Drink, you are to have it of the fair, pure Water of my Fountain.

The Condition (quoth Panurge) is very hard: nevertheless, cost what price it will, or whatsoever come of it, I heartily condescend thereto; protesting, that I shall to morrow break my Fast betimes, after my somniatory Exercitations; fur∣thermore, I recommend my self to Ho∣mer's two Gates, to Morpheus, to Iselon, to Phautasus, and unto Phabetor. If they in this my great need succour me, and grant me that assistance which is fitting, I will, in honour of them all, erect a jolly, gentiel Altar, composed of the softest Down. If I were now in Laconia, in the Temple of

Iuno, betwixt Oetile and Thalamis, she suddenly would disintangle my Perplexity, resolve me of my Doubts, and chear me up with fair and jovial Dreams in a deep Sleep. Then did he say thus unto Pan∣tagruel: Sir, were it not expedient for my purpose, to put a Branch or two of curious Laurel betwixt the Quilt and Bol∣ster of my Bed, under the Pillow on which my Head must lean? There is no need at all of that (quoth Pantagruel) for besides that it is a thing very superstitious, the Cheat thereof hath been at large dis∣covered unto us, in the Writings of Sera∣pion, Ascalonites, Antiphon, Philochorus, Ar∣temon, and Fulgentius▪ Placiades. I could say as much to you of the Left Shoulder of a Crocodile, as also of a Camelion▪ without prejudice be it spoken to the Credit which is due to the Opinion of old Democritus; and likewise of the Stone of the Bactrians, called Eumerites, and of the Hamonian Horn: for so by the Aethiopians is termed a certain precious Stone, colour∣ed like Gold, and in the fashion, shape, form, and proportion of a Ram's Horn, as the Horn of Iupiter Hammon is reported to have been: they over▪ and above assu∣redly affirming, that the Dreams of those who carry it about them are no less veri∣table and infallible, than the Truth of the

Divine Oracles. Nor is this much unlike to what Homer and Virgil wrote of these two Gates of Sleep: to which you have been pleased to recommend the manage∣ment of what you have in hand. The one is of Ivory, which setteth in confused, doubtful, and uncertain Dreams; for thro' Ivory, how small and slender it soever be, we can see nothing, the density, opacity, and close compactedness of its material parts, hindring the penetration of the vi∣sual Rays, and the reception of the Spe∣ciesses of such things as are visible: the other is of Horn, at which an entry i•• made to sure and certain Dreams, even as through Horn, by reason of the diapha∣nous splendour, and bright transparency thereof, the Species of all Objects of the sight distinctly pass, and so without con∣fusion appear, that they are clearly seen. Your meaning is, and you would thereby infer (quoth Fryar Iohn) that the Dreams of all horned Cuckolds (of which number Panurge, by the help of God, and his fu∣ture Wife, is without controversie to be one) are always true and infallible.