The first [second] book of the works of Mr. Francis Rabelais, Doctor in Physick, containing five books of the lives, heroick deeds, and sayings of Gargantua, and his sonne Pantagruel. Together with the Pantagrueline prognostication, the oracle of the divine Bachus, and response of the bottle. Hereunto are annexed the navigations unto the sounding isle, and the isle of the Apedests: as likewise the philosophical cream with a Limosm epistle. / All done by Mr. Francis Rabelais, in the French tongue, and now faithfully translated into English.

CHAP. XVII. How Gargantua payed his welcome to the Pari∣sians, and how he took away the great Bells of our Ladies Church.

SOme few dayes after that they had re∣fresh't themselves, he went to see the city, and was beheld of every body there with great admiration; for the People of Paris are so sottish, so badot, so foolish and fond

by nature, that a jugler, a carrier of indul∣gences, a sumpter-horse, or mule with cym∣bals, or tinkling bells, a blinde fidler in the middle of a crosse lane, shall draw a greater confluence of people together, then an E∣vangelical Preacher: and they prest so hard upon him, that he was constrained to rest himself upon the towers of our Ladies Church; at which place, seeing so many a∣bout him, he said with a loud voice, I beleeve that these buzzards wil have me to pay them here my welcom hither, and my Proficiat: it is but good reason, I will now give them their wine, but it shall be only in sport; then smi∣ling, he untied his faire Braguette, and draw∣ing out his mentul into the open aire, he so bitterly all-to-bepist them, that he drown∣ed two hundred and sixty thousand, foure hundred and eighteen, besides the women and little children: some neverthelesse of the company escaped this piss-flood by meer speed of foot, who when they were at the higher end of the University, sweating, coughing, spitting, and out of breath, they began to swear and curse, some in good hot earnest, and others in jest, Carimari, Ca∣rimara: Golynoly, Golynolo: by my sweet Sanctesse, we are wash't in sport, a sport tru∣ly to laugh at, in French Parris, for which that city hath been ever since called Paris, whose name formerly was Leucotia, (as Strabo

testifieth, lib. quarto) from the Greek word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, whitenesse, because of the white thighs of the Ladies of that place, and foras∣much as at this imposition of a new name; all the people that were there, swore every one by the Sancts of his parish, the Parisians, which are patch'd up of all nations, and all pieces of countreyes, are by nature both good Jurers, and good Jurists, and some∣what overweening; whereupon Joanninus de Barrauco libro de copiositate reverentiarum, thinks that they are called Parisians, from the Greek word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, which signifies bold∣nesse and liberty in speech. This done, he considered the great bells, which were in the said tours, and made them sound very har∣moniously, which whilest he was doing, it came into his minde, that they would serve very well for tingling Tantans, and ringing Campanels, to hang about his mares neck, when she should be sent back to his father, (as he intended to do) loaded with Brie cheese, and fresh herring; and indeed he forthwith carried them to his lodging. In the mean while there came a master begar of the Fryers of S. Anthonie, to demand in his cant∣ting way the usual benevolence of some hog∣gish stuffe, who, that he might be heard afar off, and to make the bacon, he was in quest of, shake in the very chimneys, made account to filch them away privily. Neverthelesse, he

left them behinde very honestly, not for that they were too hot, but that they were some∣what too heavy for his carriage. This was not he of Bourg, for he was too good a friend of mine. All the city was risen up in sedition, they being (as you know) upon any slight oc∣casion, so ready to uproars and insurrections, that forreign nations wonder at the patience of the Kings of France, who do not by good justice restrain them from such tumultuous courses, seeing the manifold inconveniences which thence arise from day to day. Would to God I knew the shop, wherein are forged these divisions, and factious combinations, that I might bring them to light in the con∣fraternities of my parish. Beleeve for a truth, that the place wherein the people gathered together, were thus sulfured, hoparymated, moiled and bepist, was called Nesle, where then was, (but now is no more) the Oracle of Leucotia: There was the case proposed, and the inconvenience shewed of the trans∣porting of the bells: after they had well er∣gotedpro and con, they concluded in Baralip∣ton, that they should send the oldest and most sufficient of the facultie unto Gargan∣tua, to signifie unto him the great and hor∣rible prejudice they sustain by the want of those bells; and notwithstanding the good reasons given in by some of the University, why this charge was fitter for an Oratour

then a Sophister, there was chosen for this purpose our Master Janotus de Brag∣mardo.