Gargantua and Pantagruel
François Rabelais
GARGANTUA AND PANTAGRUEL
FRANÇOIS RABELAIS, born in the 1480s, is very much a Renaissance man. As a Franciscan turned Benedictine he studied Law; he graduated as a doctor at Montpellier in 1530. Living irregularly, he published in 1532 the first of his comic ‘Chronicles’, Pantagruel; it revealed his genius as a storyteller and creator of comic characters and situations. By early 1535 he had published Gargantua, outrageously mocking old-fashioned education and rash imperialism. Against monastic ideals it opposes an Abbey where noblemen and ladies live in evangelical freedom and Renaissance splendour. In January 1535 Rabelais fled from his post as physician in Lyons. His profound and audacious Third Book was published in 1546. He was then a secular priest. He fled to Metz. His Fourth Book, published in January 1552 not long before he died, contains some of his deepest, boldest and funniest pages. It enjoyed the public support of the King and two Cardinals. (It outlived the Index of Prohibited Books on which it was eventually placed.) A Fifth Book appeared under his name in 1564. His genius was acknowledged in his own day: his world-wide influence remains enormous.
M. A. SCREECH is an Honorary Fellow of Wolfson College and an Emeritus Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, a Fellow of the British Academy and of the Royal Society of Literature, a Fellow of University College London, and a corresponding member of the Institut de France. He long served on the committee of the Warburg Institute as the Fielden Professor of French Language and Literature in London, until his election to All Souls. He is a Renaissance scholar of international renown. He has edited and translated both the complete edition and a selection of Montaigne’s Essays for Penguin Classics and, also, in a separate volume, the Apology for Raymond Sebond. His other books include Erasmus: Ecstacy and the Praise of Folly (Penguin, 1988), Rabelais, Montaigne and Melancholy (Penguin, 1991) and, most recently, Laughter at the Foot of the Cross (Allen Lane, 1998). All are acknowledged to be classic studies in their fields. He worked with Anne Screech on Erasmus’ Annotations on the New Testament. Michael Screech was promoted Chevalier dans l’Ordre du Mérite in 1982 and Chevalier dans la Légion d’Honneur in 1992. He was ordained in 1993 by the Bishop of Oxford.
FRANÇOIS RABELAIS
Gargantua and Pantagruel
Translated and edited
with an Introduction and Notes by
M. A. SCREECH
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This translation first published in Penguin Classics 2006
3
Translation, Introduction and Notes copyright © M. A. Screech, 2006
All rights reserved
The moral right of the translator has been asserted
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ISBN: 9781101489031
Contents
Chronology
Introduction
A Note on the Translation
PANTAGRUEL
PANTAGRUELINE PROGNOSTICATION FOR 1535
PREFACES TO ALMANACS FOR 1533 AND 1535
GARGANTUA
ALMANAC FOR 1536
THE THIRD BOOK OF PANTAGRUEL
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH BOOK OF PANTAGRUEL (1548)
THE FOURTH BOOK OF PANTAGRUEL (1552)
THE FIFTH BOOK OF PANTAGRUEL
Chronology
1483 Possible date for the birth of Rabelais at La Deviniére near Chinon. (An alternative date of 1494 is not well supported.)
1500–1510 Some time during these years Rabelais studies law, perhaps at Bourges, Angers and/or Poitiers.
1510–26 Rabelais, previously a novice and lay-brother (possibly in the Franciscan convent at La Baumette), is ordained priest, either there or at the Franciscan abbey of Le Puy-Saint-Martin near Fontenay-le-Comte, where he remains until 1526.
1520 Rabelais, a Franciscan at Fontenay-le-Comte, writes his first (lost) letter to Guillaume Budé.
1521 Second letter of Rabelais to Budé.
1522 Amaury Bouchard publishes Of the Female Sex, against André Tiraqueau. Rabelais remains friends with both Bouchard and Tiraqueau.
1523–4 Rabelais, in trouble with his superiors for studying Greek, has already translated into Latin the first book of Herodotus and some works of Lucian. He is supported by his bishop, Geoffroy d’Estissac. Rabelais ceases to be a mendicant friar and becomes a monk (a Benedictine).
1524–6 Based at the Benedictine house at Saint-Pierre-de-Maillezais, Rabelais works for, and travels with, his bishop.
1525 Rabelais possibly in Lyons.
February: A disastrous defeat for the French at Pavia. François I is prisoner in Madrid.
1526 By the Peace of Madrid, François I is released from captivity and the royal sons are kept as hostages for his ransom. Milan is ceded to Charles V.
1526–30 Rabelais leaves Poitou. He studies the great Greek medical authorities (Hippocrates and Galen), probably in Paris. Two of his three children, François and Junie Rabelais, perhaps born during this period.
1528 Late summer sees the beginning of over five years of disastrous drought in large parts of France.
1529 The Peace of Cambrai: the royal sons are to be released against a ransom of 2 million crowns.
1530 Rabelais signs the matriculation rolls at Montpellier and quickly graduates as Bachelor of Medicine.
1530–32 Rabelais in Montpellier.
1531 Rabelais lectures at Montpellier on the Aphorisms of Hippocrates and Galen’s Ars Parva.
May: The Paris Parlement consolidates its powers over the Sorbonne’s right to censor books.
1532 Rabelais, in the University of Montpellier, acts in The Farce of the Man Who Married a Dumb Wife. Practises medicine in the Midi, including Narbonne; by June, he is established in Lyons.
Dedicates his edition of Manardi’s Epistolae Medicinales to Tiraqueau, his edition of works of Galen and Hippocrates to Bishop Geoffroy d’Estissac and his edition of Lucius Cuspidius’ Testamentum to Amaury Bouchard. First edition of Pantagruel (if not in 1531). Appointed physician to the Hôtel-Dieu in November, the great hospital in Lyons, Rabelais publishes his Almanac for the year 1533. Writes to Erasmus; the letter is sent with a Greek manuscript of Josephus sought by Erasmus. The Pantagrueline Prognostication for 1533.
1533 February: Permission is given to wear masks in the streets of Paris during the Shrovetide revels. ‘Anti-Lutheran
’ demonstrations and sermons are orchestrated by the Sorbonne.
May: An attempt by the Sorbonne to censor The Mirror of the Sinful Soul of Marguerite de Navarre as well as Pantagruel. The Sorbonne theologians Béda, Picart and Leclerc are exiled twenty leagues from Paris. Critical posters (placards) are displayed in Paris. Reprisals.
July: The Sorbonne authorizes Nicolas Bouchart and Louis Théobald to supplicate François I on behalf of Béda. They are unsuccessful.
October: The Sorbonne denies ever having intended to censor The Mirror of the Sinful Soul.
Rabelais publishes an augmented Pantagruel and the Pantagrueline Prognostication for 1534.
The plague, endemic in Europe, spreads. Rabelais is praised for his devotion to his patients.
1534 Rabelais leaves for Rome with Bishop Jean Du Bellay, possibly entrusting a manuscript of Gargantua to François Juste in Lyons. He leaves Rome in March.
April: Rabelais in Lyons with Jean Du Bellay (who goes on to Paris). Rabelais’ movements unknown between April and July. Gargantua, if not already published, now in hand.
August: Rabelais resumes his post as physician in the Hôtel-Dieu. He dedicates his edition of Marliani’s Topographia Romae to Jean Du Bellay.
October: The (first) Affaire des Placards (17–18 October). Posters (now known to be Zwinglian) attack the Mass as idolatry. Repression follows.
November-December: The publication of the Almanac for the Year 1535 and the expanded Pantagrueline Prognostication for 1535, critical of the suppression of Evangelicals.
1535 The Affaire du 13 janvier: a rash repeat of the Placards of October 1534. Violent repercussions. Many flee. All printing is forbidden but later restored through the influence of Guillaume Budé and the Du Bellays. A great national act of expiation led by François I; the Du Bellays remain in favour. Heretics are burnt.
January: The probable date for the publication of Gargantua. Rabelais’ son Théodule, born about this time (?). Pantagruel published without the permission of Rabelais by the printer Saincte-Lucie dit Le Prince in Lyons.
February: Guillaume Du Bellay publishes for François I a letter to the German states defending the French alliance with the Turks even while ‘heresy’ is suppressed at home. Béda’s amende honorable before Notre-Dame-de-Paris; he is exiled once and for all to Mont-Saint-Michel.
Rabelais abandons his post in the Hôtel-Dieu, Lyons; he publishes his Almanac for 1536.
May: Jean Du Bellay is named cardinal, amidst accusations of Lutheranism.
June: François I invites Melanchthon to Paris.
Jean Du Bellay and Rabelais in Rome: they may have travelled there together, passing through Ferrara. The second edition of Gargantua, specifically dated 1535, may have been left en route in Lyons with François Juste.
1535–6 Rabelais arranges a papal absolution for his ‘apostasy’.
1536 February: Rabelais is installed in Jean Du Bellay’s Benedictine abbey at Saint-Maur-les-Fossés; it is secularized, and Rabelais with it. A papal brief authorizes him to practise medicine. He is now a secular priest, a ‘father’.
August: Rabelais figures among the canons of Saint-Maur.
1537 During this year, Pantagruel and Gargantua republished in Lyons and Paris.
January: Béda dies in exile at Mont-Saint-Michel.
February: Rabelais at a celebratory banquet in Paris with Etienne Dolet, Budé, Marot, Danes, Macrin, Bourbon and others.
April: Rabelais graduates, in Montpellier, as a licencié (a step towards his full Doctorate of Medicine).
May: Rabelais becomes a Doctor of Medicine.
June-September: Rabelais possibly in Lyons.
August: Guillaume Du Bellay passes through Lyons on his way to govern the Piedmont. Rabelais joins him.
October: Rabelais lectures at Montpellier on the Prognostics of Hippocrates. The course lasts until April 1538.
November: Rabelais presides over a public dissection performed as a lesson in anatomy.
1538 Fresh severe measures decreed against heresy in France.
Summer: Rabelais in Montpellier, from where he joins Guillaume Du Bellay (now the Governor of the Piedmont) in Turin. Publishes his Stratagemata, praising the military prowess of Guillaume Du Bellay. No copy is known.
First edition of the anonymous Panurge disciple de Pantagruel (seven editions follow, variously named).
1538–40 Rabelais possibly in Lyons. He may have made a visit to Bordeaux. His son Théodule may have been born in this period, rather than 1535.
1540 Rabelais’ children François and Junie relieved of the stigma of illegitimacy by the papal curia.
December: Rabelais back in France (via Chambéry). Publishes an Almanac for 1541.
1540–42 Rabelais in Piedmont with Guillaume Du Bellay.
1541 Rabelais returns to France in November (when Guillaume Du Bellay reports on Piedmont).
1542 Guillaume Postel violently attacks Rabelais in print. Rabelais will mock him in his Fourth Book.
April: Rabelais passes through Lyons en route for Turin with Guillaume Du Bellay. The revised Pantagruel, published by François Juste, dates from this period. Etienne Dolet brings out a pirate edition without the revisions made by Rabelais. During his various stays in Italy Rabelais reads Celio Calcagnini, the mythographer.
November: Guillaume Du Bellay, ill, includes Rabelais amongst the beneficiaries of his will. He leaves Turin for France in December. Rabelais is with him.
1543 January: Guillaume Du Bellay dies near Roanne. Rabelais is present and escorts the body home.
March: Gargantua and Pantagruel figure on the list of censorable books drawn up by the Sorbonne for the Paris Parlement. Rabelais is present (with Ronsard and others) at burial of Guillaume Du Bellay in the Cathedral of Le Mans.
1544 August: The Sorbonne’s revised list of censorable books is sent to the printers: Rabelais figures in it.
1545 January: François Bribart, secretary of Jean Du Bellay, burnt at the stake.
April: The massacre of the Vaudois.
September: François I provides the royal privilège for the Third Book of Pantagruel (signed by Delauney).
1546 Before Easter: The Third Book printed by Christian Wechel (Paris). At least three other printings follow.
Rabelais discreetly slips away to Metz. He is appointed Physician to the City. He reads works of Luther.
August: Etienne Dolet is burnt in the Place Maubert. Jean Du Bellay exchanges his bishopric of Paris for that of Le Mans (which is better than Paris for his health).
December: The expanded catalogue of books censored since May 1544 is published; it includes the Third Book of Pantagruel.
1547 April: Henri II succeeds to the throne. Jean Du Bellay remains in favour.
June: After the coronation of Henri II at Rheims, Jean Du Bellay leaves for Rome.
Probably the last of the payments to Rabelais as physician in Metz. He travels from Metz to Rome, possibly leaving the ‘partial’ Fourth Book with Pierre de Tours in Lyons. Remains in Italy until 1549.
1548 During this year, there are at least two printings of the ‘partial’ Fourth Book.
June: Rabelais in Rome.
1549 February: The birth of Louis of Orleans, second son of Henry II.
March: The festivities held in Rome in honour of Henry II are described by Rabelais in his Sciomachie.
September: Jean Du Bellay leaves Rome. Violent attack on Rabelais in a work, Theotimus, by an important theologian of the Sorbonne, Gabriel Dupuyherbault, whom Rabelais will mock in his Fourth Book.
1550 August–October: Rabelais is at Saint-Maur with Jean Du Bellay (convalescent). He meets the Cardinal Odet de Châtillon, who assures him of the royal favour and of his own support.
August: The royal privilège for all of Rabelais’ works granted in the presence of Odet de Châtillon. Calvin attacks Rabelais in his Treatise on Scandals.
1551 The Sorbonne publishes a list of censored books which includes editions of Pantagruel, Gargantua
and the Third Book.
Rabelais enjoys two benefices: Meudon and Saint-Christophe-du-Jambet (Sarthe). He does not reside.
1552 January: The Fourth Book is printed by Fezandat in Paris; it contains a Preliminary Epistle addressed to Cardinal Odet de Châtillon.
March: The Paris Parlement condemns the new Fourth Book at the request of the Sorbonne. It provisionally forbids the sale of the Fourth Book pending directions from the king.
April: The triumphant entry of Henry II into Metz. Fezan-dat reprints two pages of the Fourth Book to insert a eulogy of the French victories.
October: (Untrue) rumour that Rabelais is in prison.
1553 January: Rabelais resigns his benefices at Meudon and Saint-Christoph-du-Jambet.
Before 14 March: Rabelais dies in La Rue des Jardins in Paris. He is buried in the cemetery of St Paul’s Church.
1555 October: Calvin attacks Rabelais in a sermon.
1562 The Isle Sonante is published.
1564 Publication of the Fifth Book.
The Council of Trent concludes and publishes the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, which places Rabelais at the head of the ‘heretics of the first class’.
Introduction
BAWDY, AND INCOMPARABLE
Rabelais has made us laugh for centuries. His name evokes fun, merriment, jests and bawdiness at its best. Yet his laughter is not all on the surface and not always easy to grasp: it leads to a smiling, charitable and tolerant wisdom which accepts and surmounts misfortune. He came to call it pantagruelism. Like Democritus in antiquity, Rabelais deserves the name of Laughing Philosopher.
Dictionaries define his comedy as gross, bawdy and often scatological. It certainly can be, but the Oxford (New English) Dictionary is wider in its terms. There Rabelaisian means ‘an exuberance of imagination and language, combined with extravagance and coarseness of humour and satire’. Admirers of Rabelais can go along with that, but such judgements fall far short of the praise heaped on him. His countrymen never underestimated him. Calvin certainly did not; he read him, though he disliked him and may have feared him. Calvin’s successor Theodore Beza both admired him and enjoyed him: he was astonished at the philosophical depths of Rabelais even when he was jesting and wondered what he must be like when he was serious.
