Three good giants
Page 1
Three good giants
Franqois Rabelais
AN EXPLANATION BY WAY OF PREFACE.
I FREELY admit what all the world knows about FRANCOIS RABELAIS.
Long before the day when Fielding and Smollett began to be read on the sly, and before the comic Muse of Congreve and Wycherly began to be looked at askance, that English moral sentiment, over which Ma-caulay was to philosophize more than a century later, had solidified in ignoring Rabelais. Nothing is to be said against the, sertimfem irself. This has always been fairly righteous, if just a bit undiseriminating. A great humorist, showing himself content to grovel in ,the dirt, is, beyond question, deserving of black looks tin;! -t-hut
I have read Rabelais twice in my life. Each time, I have read
him in that old French, which has no master quite so great as he; and each time in Auguste Desrez's edition, which, in its careful Table des Matieres, learned glossary, quaint notes, Gallicized Latin and Greek words, and a complete Rabelaisiana, shows the devotion of the rare editor, who does not distort, because he understands, the Master whom he edits. When I first peeped into his pages I was a lad, altogether too young to be tainted by profanity, while I skipped, true boy-fashion, whole pages to pick out the wondrous story of his Giants. When I came back to him, after many years, I was both older and, I hope, wiser. Being older, I had learned to gauge him better, both in his strength and in his weakness. I had come to see wherein an old prejudice was too just to be safely resisted ; and, on the other hand, wherein it had got to be so deeply set that it had hardened to injustice. As I went on, it did not take me long to discover that it was quite possible for my purpose — following, indeed, the path unconsciously taken in my boyhood — to divide Rabelais sharply into incident and philosophy. That this had not been thought of before surprised, but did not daunt me. I said to myself: 1 shall limit the incident strictly to his three Giants; I shall hold these, from grandfather to grandson, well together ; keep all that is sound in them; cut away the impurity which is not so much of as arouxtf^hem-', eh}? 3! them out as a sculptor might, and leave his philosophy with, face to the wall. This done, I turned the scouring hose, full'.ui.id..s"ti:Dmg, upon the incidents themselves, clearing out both dialecii&s and. -profanity thoroughly. I did not stop until I had left the famous trio, (JRANDGOUSIER, GARGANTUA, and PANTAGRUEL where I had, from the first, hoped to place them, — high and dry above the scum which had so long clogged their rare good-fellowship, and which had made men of judgment blind to the genuine worth that was in them.
In this way I believed that I saw the chance to free Rabelais' Giants, so long kept in bonds, from a captivity which has dishonored them. To do this was clearly running against that good old law which has invariably made all Giants — far back from fairy-time— thunder-voiced, great-toothed, rude-handed, hard-hearted, bloody-minded creatures and truculent captors, never, on any account, pitiful captives. But, to such, the Rabelaisian Giants are none of kin. No more are they of blood to that Giant that Jack slew, or that Giant Despair, in whose garden-court Bunyan dreamt that he saw the white bones of slaughtered pilgrims.
Public sentiment has hitherto illogically retched at the name of Rabelais, while it swallows without qualm "Tristram Shandy" and "Gulliver's Travels." Shall it always retch? The time, I think, is practically taking the answer into its own hands. Rabelais, through some cotemporaneous influence, rising subtly in his favor among men who are neither afraid nor ashamed to judge for themselves, is, in one sense, slowly becoming a naturalized citizen of our modern Literary Republic. Literature and Art are joining hands in his rehabilitation. Mr. Walter Besant, a novelist, has been so good as to write his life; to say bright words about him ; and to quote clean things from him. Mrs. Oliphant, a purist, has consented to admit him into her "Foreign Classics for English Readers." Three years ago M. Emile Hebert's bronze statue of him was unveiled at that Chinon, his birthplace, which he lovingly calls "the most ancient city of the world." And, to crown all, as the latest expression of a tardy recognition, his bust by M. Trupheme was, only the other day, uncovered at that Meudon of which he was, for a time, the famous, if not always orthodox, Cure.
Rabelais himself never, it is clear, appreciated his Giants save for the contrasted jollity which they lent to his satires.
AN EXPLANATION BY WAT OF PREFACE.
" Mieulx est de ris que de larmes escripre, four ce que rire est le propre de Ihomme" was his maxim. But this maxim never rose to a creed. His Giants seem, almost against his will, to stride beyond the territory of mere burlesque. They are as easily free from theology as from science. They have never been of La Bamette. They are as far from Mont-pellier. To these colossal creations, heroes fashioned in ridicule of the old fantastico-chivalric deeds of their age, as they come down more and more from the clouds, are more and more given the feelings common to this earth's creatures. All three bear, from their birth, a sturdy human sympathy not natural to their kind, as mediaeval superstition classed it. Two of them, in being brought to the level of humanity, join with this a simple Christian manliness and a childlike faith under all emergencies, not set on their own massive strength, but fixed on God, whom they had been taught to know, and honor, and serve — and all this by whom? Forsooth, by the same Frangois Eabelais, laugher, mocker, and "insensate reviler." From Grandgousier, the good-hearted guzzler, through Gargantua, with his heady youth and wise old age, to "the noble Pantagruel," the gain in purity and Christian manhood is steady. The royal race of Chalbroth follows no track beaten down by other kingly lines known to history. While their line descends from father to son, it ascends in virtue.
One charge — a legacy from the narrow times when run-mad commentators spied a plot in every folio—has followed, to this day, Rabelais and his work. Wise men have, to their own satisfaction, proved the latter to be an enigma filled with hidden meanings, dangerous to state and morals; with mad attacks directed, from every chapter, against ordered society; with satiric thrusts lurking, in every sentence, against Pope, and King, and nobles; in brief, a Malay-muck run with a pen, instead of a knife, against the moral foundations of the world. All these, if not true, are certainly "like, very like" the Rabelais as he is painted by purists in the gallery of great authors. If true, they have wrought more subtly than all else in the forging of those heavy chains which have been bound, coil upon coil, around his hapless big men. It is not to be wondered at that even their mighty number of cubits should have been smothered under the fine, slow-settling dust of three centuries. Happily, however, fair play has been, of old, the standing boast of all English-speaking men. Fra^ois Rabelais — never once deigning to ask for it at home, when living — has, in penalty therefor, been ferociously denied it abroad, when dead. To that sentiment — moved, it may be, by a concurrent testimony given, in this age, to the memory of the author himself —I appeal now in behalf of his Giants. That they have fared badly through all these centuries, mostly by reason of him, cannot be gainsaid. That of themselves, however, they have in no wise merited such ostracism, is what I have ventured to claim in this compilation. Freed alike from that prejudice which has hunted them down, and from those formidable points of ignorance Pertaining thereunto," which have, so far, blocked every avenue to modern sympathy, I would have them honored, among all stout lovers of fair play, as I leave them in this " Explanation by way of Preface."
J. D.
CHAPTER VIII.
Gargantua goes to Paris, and the Big Mare that takes him there 32
&n
bsp; CHAPTER IX.
The Parisians laugh at Gargantua. He takes his Revenge by stealing the Great Bells of Notre Dame . . 3.S
CHAPTER X.
Ponocrates, the new Teacher, desires Gargantua to show him how he used to study with old Master Holofernes . . 40
CHAPTER XI.
The Two Hundred and Fifteen Games of Cards Gargantua knew how to play. What it was he said after he had gone through the List, and what it was Ponocrates remarked . 44
CHAPTER XII.
Gargantua is dosed by Ponocrates, and forgets all that Holofernes had taught him ....... 48
CHAPTER XIII.
How Gargantua was made not to lose one Hour of the Day . 52
CHAPTER XIV.
How the Awful War between the Bunmakers of Lerne and Gargantua's Country was begun ...... 5T
PAGE
CHAPTER XV.
How old King Grandgousier received the News .... 67
CHAPTER XVI.
How Grandgousier tried to buy Peace with Five Cart-loads of Buns ........... 71
CHAPTER XVII.
How Gargantua, with a Big Tree, broke down a Castle, and passed the Ford of Vede ....... 74
CHAPTER XVIII.
How Gargantua combed Cannon-Balis out of his Hair, and how he ate Six Pilgrims in a Salad before Supper ... 82
CHAPTER XIX.
How Friar John comes to the Feast, and how King Grandgousier had recruited his Army ....... 89
CHAPTER XX.
Gargantua's Mare scores a Victory . ... 95
CHAPTER XXI.
Showing what Gargantua did after the Battle, and how Grandgousier welcomed him Home . . . 102
CHAPTER XXII.
PAGE
Grandgousier's Death. Gargantua's Marriage. Pantagruel is Born 109
CHAPTER XXIII.
The Strange Things Pantagruel did as a Baby .... 113
CHAPTER XXIV.
After studying at several Universities, Pantagruel goes to
Paris ........... 118
CHAPTER XXV.
Pantagruel finds Panurge, whom he loves all his life . . .127
CHAPTER XXVI.
Pantagruel beats the Sorbonne in Argument, and Panurge proves that an Englishman's fingers are not so nimble as a Frenchman's ......... 131
CHAPTER XXVII.
What sort of Man Panurge was, and the many Tricks he knew ......... . 141
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Showing why the Leagues are so much shorter in France than in Germany .......... 146
CHAPTER XXIX.
PAGE
How the Cunning of Panurge, with the Aid of Eusthenes and Carpalim, discomfited Six Hundred and Sixty Horsemen . 150
CHAPTER XXX.
How Carpalim went hunting for Fresh Meat, and how a Trophy
was set up .......... 156
CHAPTER XXXI.
The Strange Way in which Pantagruel obtained a Victory over the Thirsty People ........ 160
CHAPTER XXXII.
The Wonderful Way in which Pantagruel disposed of the Giant Loupgarou and his Two Hundred and Ninety-Nine Giants . 165
CHAPTER XXXIII.
How Pantagruel finally conquers the Thirsty People, and the strange business Panurge finds for King Anarchus . . 172
CHAPTER XXXIV.
Gargantua comes back from Fairy-Land, after which Pantagruel prepares for another Trip ...... 178
CHAPTER XXXV.
Pantagruel starts on his Travels, and lands at the Island of Pictures 180
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
Panurge bargains with Dindeno for a Ram, and throws his Ram
overboard 108
CHAPTER XXXVII. The Island of Alliances ........ 195
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
How Pantagruel came to the Islands of Tohu and Bohu. The Strange Death of Widenostrils, the Swallower of Windmills, 199
CHAPTER XXXIX.
A Great Storm, in which Panurge plays the Coward . . . 203
CHAPTER XL.
The Island of the Macreons and its Forest, in which the Heroes who are tempted by Demons die ..... 210
CHAPTER XLI.
Pantagruel touches at the Wonderful Island of Ruach, where Giant Widenostrils had found the Cocks and Hens which killed him. How the People lived by Wind . . . 218
CHAPTER XLII.
Pantagruel, with his Darts, kills a Monster which Cannon-Balis could not hurt. The Power of the Sign of the Cross . 223
CHAPTER XLIII.
Which tells of several Islands, and the Wonderful People who
FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAOK GARGANTUA ON THE TOWER OF NOTRE DAME . FRONTISPIECE
FRIAR JOHN ATTACKS THE BUNMAKERS 63
GARGANTUA DESTROYS THE CASTLE 79
THE DEFEAT OF PICROCHOLE 99
PANTAGRUEL ENTERS PARIS 123
THE DISPUTATION 137
THE DEATH OF LOUPGAROU 169
PANTAGRUEL IN THE GRAVEYARD 213
THE ISLE OF GANABIM 239
THE QUEEN OF LANTERNS 243
ENGRAVINGS IN THE TEXT.
PORTRAIT OF FRANgois RABELAIS v
CASTLE GRANDGOUSIER 1
THE GIANT CHALBROTH 2
THE GIANT HURTALI ON THE ARK 4
INITIAL K 6
KING GRANDGOUSIER KEEPS OPEN HOUSE .... 7
THE KING AND QUEEN LOVE TRIPES 8
INITIAL W . 11
TAGB " THE QUEEN LOOKED AT HER BABY " 11
AN UNCOMMON BABY CARRIAGE 12
" THE SERVANTS GOT TO BE SAD TOPERS " . . . 13
INITIAL W 15
MAKING GARGANTUA'S SUIT 16
MEASURING GARGANTUA FOR HIS SUIT 17
GARGANTUA AT PLAY 18
GARGANTUA'S HORSE 19
GARGANTUA'S RH>ING-LESSONS 20
"A NOBLE LORD CAME ON A VISIT" ..... 21
" ONLY THREE LITTLE STEPS " 22
INITIAL O 24
TUBAL HOLOFERNES 25
THE FRIEND WHO KNEW LATIN . . . . . . 26
FLIGHT OF THE TUTOR 28
INITIAL W 29
EUDEMON 30
INITIAL T 32
GARGANTUA'S MARE 33
PONOCRATES 34
INITIAL T 35
GARGANTUA ENTERS PARIS . 36
THE CITY WAS EXCITED . . „ 38
INITIAL G ........... 40
GARGANTUA GETS UP ........ 41
GARGANTUA BREAKFASTS ........ 42
GARGANTUA GOES TO CHURCH .43
INITIAL T 44
GARGANTUA LOOKS INTO THE KITCHEN ..... 46
INITIAL W 48
PONOCRATES DOSES GARGANTUA 49
FA6K GARGANTUA AT HIS LESSONS 50
INITIAL E 52
GARGANTUA LEARNS TO SHOOT 53
GARGANTUA LEARNS TO CLIMB 54
GARGANTUA STUDIES ASTRONOMY 55
INITIAL W 57
THE BUNMAKERS OF LERNE 58
THE ANGER OF PICROCHOLE 59
CAPTAIN SWILLWIND'S CAVALRY ...... 61
SPOILING THE MONKS 62
FRIAR JOHN TO THE RESCUE 66
INITIAL W .... 67
PICROCHOLE'S ARMY 68
GRANDGOUSIER WRITES TO GARGANTUA 69
INITIAL K 71
GRANDGOUSIER'S EMBASSY ....... 72
INITIAL G 74
GARGANTUA HURRIES HOME 75
GYMNASTE WARMS HIMSELF ....... 76
THE CASTLE OF ROCHE-CLERMAUD . . „ . . . 77
CANNONADING GARGANTUA 78
INITIAL G 82
GARGANTUA COMBS HIS HAIR 83
" AND SUCH A SUPPER ! " 85
THE PILGRIMS IN THE GARDEN 87
INITIAL I 89
FRIAR JOHN ARRIVES ........ 91
THE ADVANCE-GUARD STARTS ...... 93
GRANDGOUSIER'S ARMY ........ 94
INITIAL T 95
MOUNTING FOR THE FRAY 96
FAOS THE ASSAULT 97
PlCROCHOLE TAKES COURAGE 98
THE FLIGHT OF PICROCHOLE , 101
INITIAL W 102
GARGANTUA'S CAPTIVES 103
GARGANTUA REWARDING THE ARMY 105
THE WONDERFUL WINDING STAIRWAY 107
INITIAL A 109
THE DREADFUL DROUGHT Ill
INITIAL G 113
THE FUNERAL OF QUEEN BADEBEC 114
PANTAGRUEL'S PORRINGER 115
PANTAGRUEL CARRIES HIS CRADLE 117
INITIAL S 118
THE GREAT CROSS-BOW OF CHANTELLE . . . .118
THE GREAT RAISED STONE 119
PANTAGRUEL VISITS HIS ANCESTORS' TOMB . . . .120
PANTAGRUEL SETTLES AT ORLEANS 121
PANTAGRUEL IN THE LIBRARY 125
INITIAL O 127
PANTAGRUEL MEETS PANURGE 129
INITIAL W 131
AT THE GATES OF SORBONNE 133
THAUMASTES VISITS PANTAGRUEL 134
"THE GREAT COLLEGE WAS PACKED" 135
PANURGE REPLIES 139
INITIAL T 141
PANURGE GETS MONEY 142
PANURGE AND THE DIRT-CARTS 143
PANURGE'S FUN 145
INITIAL A 146
PAGE
PANTAGRUEL MARCHES TO ROTTEN 147
INITIAL S . 150
THE VOYAGE BEGINS 151
PANURGE DISCOMFITS THE HORSEMEN . . . . . . 153
INITIAL W 156
CARPALIM CATCHES SOME FRESH MEAT 157
THE TROPHY .......... 158
INITIAL W ......... 160
THE KING OF THE THIRSTY PEOPLE 161
THE SOLDIERS TRY PANTAGRUEL'S PASTE .... 163
INITIAL A ........... 165
THE FIGHT WITH LOUPGAROU ....... 167
INITIAL A ......... 172
WELCOME TO PANTAGRUEL .... . 173
"GRANDER AND MlGHTIER THAN EVER!" .... 175
PANTAGRUEL RETURNS .... .176
INITIAL O 178
INITIAL A ..... 180
PANTAGRUEL PICKS HIS SHIPS . . 181
PANTAGRUEL SETS SAIL ... 182
LANDING AT THE ISLE OF PICTURES . . 183
PANTAGRUEL BUYS SOME STRANGE ANIMALS . . 185
THE LAND OF SATIN .... . . 187
INITIAL F .......
PANURGE WANTS A SHEEP . . 189 PANURGE BUYS A RAM . ....
PANURGE THROWS HIS RAM OVERBOARD . . . .193
THE SHEEP AND SHEPHERDS DROWN . 194 INITIAL A ...
THE ACE-OF-CLUBS NOSES . . .197
INITIAL P 199
PA B
GIANT WIDENOSTRILS, THE SWALLOWER OF WINDMILLS . 201