mortalterror
08-28-2015, 09:37 PM
Excerpt Gargantua and Pantagruel
by Francois Rabelais
“In addition I have lost a great deal in lawsuits.”
“And what lawsuits could you have had?” I asked. “You have neither land nor houses.”
“My friend,” he said, “by the instigation of the Devil from Hell, the ladies of this town discovered a kind of neckerchief or gorget worn high on the neck, which concealed their breasts so completely that a man could no longer put his hand under them. For they made the thing open behind, and it was entirely closed in front, much to the displeasure of their poor, doleful pensive lovers. One fine Tuesday I presented a petition to the court, opening a suit against these fine gentlewomen and setting forth the great injury caused to me thereby, at the same time protesting that, by the same argument, I would have the codpiece of my trousers sewn on behind, unless the court made an order in my favor. To sum things up, the ladies formed a syndicate, showed their grounds for defense, and engaged lawyers to defend their case. But I pursued the matter so vigorously that it was decreed by sentence of the court that these high gorgets should be worn no longer, unless slightly open at the front. But it cost me a great deal.”
Excerpt 2
O my friend, said Pantagruel, dost thou know what Agesilaus said when he was asked why the great city of Lacedaemon was not enclosed with walls? Lo here, said he, the walls of the city! in showing them the inhabitants and citizens thereof, so strong, so well armed, and so expert in military discipline; signifying thereby that there is no wall but of bones, and that towns and cities cannot have a surer wall nor better fortification than the prowess and virtue of the citizens and inhabitants. So is this city so strong, by the great number of warlike people that are in it, that they care not for making any other walls. Besides, whosoever would go about to wall it, as Strasbourg, Orleans, or Ferrara, would find it almost impossible, the cost and charges would be so excessive. Yea but, said Panurge, it is good, nevertheless, to have an outside of stone when we are invaded by our enemies, were it but to ask, Who is below there? As for the enormous expense which you say would be needful for undertaking the great work of walling this city about, if the gentlemen of the town will be pleased to give me a good rough cup of wine, I will show them a pretty, strange, and new way, how they may build them good cheap. How? said Pantagruel. Do not speak of it then, answered Panurge, and I will tell it you. I see that the sine quo nons, kallibistris, or contrapunctums of the women of this country are better cheap than stones. Of them should the walls be built, ranging them in good symmetry by the rules of architecture, and placing the largest in the first ranks, then sloping downwards ridge-wise, like the back of an ***. The middle-sized ones must be ranked next, and last of all the least and smallest. This done, there must be a fine little interlacing of them, like points of diamonds, as is to be seen in the great tower of Bourges, with a like number of the nudinnudos, nilnisistandos, and stiff bracmards, that dwell in amongst the claustral codpieces. What devil were able to overthrow such walls?
Excerpt 3
To this Gargantua answered, that he had taken such a course for that himself, that in all the country there was not to be found a cleanlier boy than he. How is that? said Grangousier. I have, answered Gargantua, by a long and curious experience, found out a means to wipe my bum, the most lordly, the most excellent, and the most convenient that ever was seen. What is that? said Grangousier, how is it? I will tell you by-and-by, said Gargantua. Once I did wipe me with a gentle-woman's velvet mask, and found it to be good; for the softness of the silk was very voluptuous and pleasant to my fundament. Another time with one of their hoods, and in like manner that was comfortable. At another time with a lady's neckerchief, and after that I wiped me with some ear-pieces of hers made of crimson satin, but there was such a number of golden spangles in them (turdy round things, a pox take them) that they fetched away all the skin of my tail with a vengeance. Now I wish St. Antony's fire burn the bum-gut of the goldsmith that made them, and of her that wore them! This hurt I cured by wiping myself with a page's cap, garnished with a feather after the Switzers' fashion.
Afterwards, in dunging behind a bush, I found a March-cat, and with it I wiped my breech, but her claws were so sharp that they scratched and exulcerated all my perinee. Of this I recovered the next morning thereafter, by wiping myself with my mother's gloves, of a most excellent perfume and scent of the Arabian Benin. After that I wiped me with sage, with fennel, with anet, with marjoram, with roses, with gourd-leaves, with beets, with colewort, with leaves of the vine-tree, with mallows, wool-blade, which is a tail-scarlet, with lettuce, and with spinach leaves. All this did very great good to my leg. Then with mercury, with parsley, with nettles, with comfrey, but that gave me the bloody flux of Lombardy, which I healed by wiping me with my braguette. Then I wiped my tail in the sheets, in the coverlet, in the curtains, with a cushion, with arras hangings, with a green carpet, with a table-cloth, with a napkin, with a handkerchief, with a combing-cloth; in all which I found more pleasure than do the mangy dogs when you rub them. Yea, but, said Grangousier, which torchecul did you find to be the best? I was coming to it, said Gargantua, and by-and-by shall you hear the tu autem, and know the whole mystery and knot of the matter. I wiped myself with hay, with straw, with thatch-rushes, with flax, with wool, with paper, but...
Afterwards I wiped my bum, said Gargantua, with a kerchief, with a pillow, with a pantoufle, with a pouch, with a pannier, but that was a wicked and unpleasant torchecul; then with a hat. Of hats, note that some are shorn, and others shaggy, some velveted, others covered with taffeties, and others with satin. The best of all these is the shaggy hat, for it makes a very neat abstersion of the fecal matter.
Afterwards I wiped my tail with a hen, with a ****, with a pullet, with a calf's skin, with a hare, with a pigeon, with a cormorant, with an attorney's bag, with a montero, with a coif, with a falconer's lure. But, to conclude, I say and maintain, that of all torcheculs, arsewisps, bumfodders, tail-napkins, bunghole cleansers, and wipe-breeches, there is none in the world comparable to the neck of a goose, that is well downed, if you hold her head betwixt your legs.
Eupalinos
08-30-2015, 04:55 AM
Gargantua and Pantagruel is a monumental essay. In Rabelais is the magnitude of human life: terrifying, bewildering, touching, and hysterically absurd. For some his work forms a religion unto itself. The disputation by signs chapter is marvelous satire on the arbitrarity of symbols; the needless folly of the war started by Picrochole's bakers a hilarious depiction of one of the most awful facts of human life; the Abbey of Thélème one of most vivid idealizations of an institution; the Third Book a funny and moving parable on the fundamental uncertainty of all knowledge. Everywhere the prose (which some insist is the finest in the language) embraces the sensual, the excessive, the by-default-wasteful nature of the body and ironizes lovingly the attempt of humanity to quantify, to categorize, to possess the world. He is able to make ideas malleable and charged with the presence of creatural reality in a way curiously parallel to Dante. I can't think of another author who is as equally outrageous as he is sane. Rabelais was a doctor and his narrative has a medicinal quality, as if he were setting out to cure life of its suffering. And as an encyclopedic narrative, it is commonly placed alongside the Commedia, Don Quixote, and Faust; the novelist John Cowper Powys in his book on Rabelais writes that outside of Homer and Shakespeare, he knows of no work that stands rival to those four.
You needn't bother with the apocryphal Fifth Book, but my suggestion would be to at least make it through the beginning of the Third if you can before deciding whether to give up.
Eupalinos
09-01-2015, 02:43 PM
I didn't enjoy Rabelais aside from the passages above and the one where Panurge buys a ram.
Yes but why? Was it Rabelais' fault or yours?
I think each of the four (or five) books is best taken as a whole. Each has a sort of symphonic design that's unique and the meaning of one enriches another. You quoted a few amusing passages but they can't give an adequate idea of the perspective of life presented in scene after scene. Of course if you don't like Rabelais that's fine. I'm making a point about getting through him, because the longer you keep to it the more chance of having a change of mind or discovering a new way of thinking about this seemingly ridiculous text. Revelations, with an artwork of any kind, are not always immediate. In my case almost all of them came with effort so far as literature goes. And it's not on my authority that there are many possibilities of having one's conceptions of the world challenged or turned upside down inherent in Rabelais.
wreade1872
09-06-2015, 10:40 AM
Thanks all, I'm ejoying it a bit more now that I've gone a bit further into the story. Now that someone mentioned Don Quixote that has some similarities as far as being a "wild" story. I'll keep at it, at least for now. KDM
I don't think its quite as bad as Don Quixote, the entire second vol of Quixote seem pretty pointless except for the end. The only real slog i had in Gargantua was Book 3, its one long joke about the manwhore guy not wanting to get married because he's afraid his wife will cheat on him, god forbid! Anyway it just goes on and on... without book 3 it'd pretty decent. There's way too much for you to like all of it though, you'll be digging a lot to find the nuggets.
Rabelais is hilarious. He's a sophisticated crudeness. His advice to readers and prologue sections do a good job of letting the reader know how to approach the book. I'm going to come off sounding elitist, but a few of the keys to properly understanding=enjoying the book is to have some life experience under your belt and be somewhat erudite.
There is a lot going on in this book. Clifton Fadiman referred to it as an encyclopedia. Often times he is saying something by creating amusing, stupid, or hilarious scenarios - sort of a read between the lines kind of thing.
The part where Gargantua talks about education is especially poignant and touching for me.
It's not for everyone. I disliked Don Quixote, though many believe it is one of the best books ever written. Then again, and this goes back to my comment about being erudite, with Rabelais I get a lot of what's going on, whereas my knowledge of the time period and customs that take place within Don Quixote are foreign to me, which is likely why I did not "get" the book. I got quite abit of it, but mostly I just didn't find it funny, but someone could easily make the case that if I had the requisite knowledge I would appreciate the book.
Eupalinos
09-14-2015, 10:22 AM
The only real slog i had in Gargantua was Book 3, its one long joke about the manwhore guy not wanting to get married because he's afraid his wife will cheat on him, god forbid! Anyway it just goes on and on... without book 3 it'd pretty decent.
Powys considers Book Three the most perfectly rounded of them, the most beautiful in form, and I think he has a point.
Panurge is a rogue, a very important 'type' for the Renaissance, with shades of the poet Francois Villon.
Taking everything at face value, Rabelais can be rather boring; but when the symbolic layers become evident he's inexhaustible.
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