LA VIE INESTIMABLE DU GRAND GARGANTUA, PERE DE PANTAGRUEL,

iadis composée par l'abstracteur de quinte essence.

Livre plein de Pantagruelisme.

On les vend à Lyon, chez Françoys Iuste devant nostre Dame de Confort.

Aux Lecteurs,

Amis lecteurs qui ce livre lisez,

Despouillez vous de toute affection.

Et le lisants ne vous scandalisez,

Il ne contient mal ne infection.

Vray est qu'icy peu de perfection

Vous apprendrez, si non en cas de rire.

Aultre argument ne peut mon cueur elire.

Voiant le dueil qui vous mine & consomme,

Mieulx est de ris que de larmes escrire,

Pour ce que rire est le propre de l'homme.

VIVEZ IOYEUX

PROLOGUE DE L'AUTEUR.

Beuveurs tresillustres & vous Verolez tresprecieux (car à vous non à aultres sont dediez mes escriptz) Alcibiades en un dialoge de Platon, intitulé Le banquet, louant son precepteur Socrates sans controverse prince des philosophes: entre aultres paroles le dict estre semblable es Silènes. Silènes estoyent iadis petites boites telles que voyons de present es bouticqs des apothecaires, pinctes au dessus de figures ioyeuses et frivoles, comme de Harpies, Satyres, oysons bridez, lievres cornuz, canes bastées, boucqs volans, cerfz limonniers, & aultres telles pinctures contrefaictes à plaisir pour exciter le monde à rire. Quel fut Silène maistre du bon Bacchus. Mais au dedans l'on reservoit les fines drogues, comme Baulme, Ambre gris, Amomon, Musc, zivette, pierreries, et aultres choses precieuses. Tel disoit estre Socrates: parce que le voyans au dehors, & l'estimans par l'exteriore apparence, n'en eussiez donné un coupeau d'oignon: tant laid il estoit de corps & ridicule en son maintien, le nez pointu, le reguard d'un taureau: le visaige d'un fol: simple en meurs, rusticq en vestemens, pauvre de fortune, infortuné en femmes, inepte à tous offices de la republicque: tousiours riant, tousiours beuvant à un chascun, tousiours se guabelant, tousiours dissimulant son divin sçavoir. Mais ouvrans ceste boite, eussiez au dedans trouvé une celeste & impreciable drogue: entendement plus que humain, vertu merveilleuse, couraige invincible, sobresse non pareille, contentement certain, asseurance parfaicte, desprivement incroyable de tout ce pourquoy les humains tant veiglent, courent, travaillent, navigent & bataillent. A quel propos, en vostre advis, tend ce prelude, & coup d'essay? Par autant que vous mes bons disciples, & quelques aultres folz de seiour lisans les ioyeux tiltres d'aulcuns livres de nostre invention, comme Gargantua, Pantagruel, Fessepinthe, La dignité des braguettes, Des poys au lard cum commento etc, iugez trop facilement ne estre au dedans traicté que mocqueries, folateries, & menteries ioyeuses: veu que que l'enseigne exteriore (c'est le tiltre) sans plus avant enquerir, est communément repceu à derision & gaudisserie. Mais par telle legiereté ne convient estimer les oeuvres des humains. Car vo' mesmes dictes, que l'habit ne faict point le moine: & tel est vestu d'habit monachal, qui au dedans n'est rien moins que moyne: & tel vestu de cappe hispanole, qui en son couraige nullement affiert à Hispane. C'est pourquoy fault ouvrir le livre: et soigneusement peser ce qui y est deduict. Lors congnoistrez que la drogue dedans contenue est bien d'aultre valeur, que ne promettoit la boitte. C'est à dire que les matieres icy traictées ne sont tant folastres, comme le tiltre au dessus pretendoit. Et posé le cas, qu'on sens literal trouvez matières assez ioyeuses & bien correspondentes au nom, toutesfois pas demourer là ne fault, comme au chant des Sirènes: ains à plus hault sens interpreter ce que par adventure cuidiez dict en guaieté de cueur. Crochetastes vo' oncques bouteilles? Caisgne. Redvisez à memoire la contenence qu'aviez. Mais veistez vo' oncques chien rencontrant quelque os medullare? C'est comme dict Platon li. 2 de rep. la beste du monde plus philosophe. Si veu l'avez: vo' avez peu noter de quelle devotion il le guette: de quel soing il le guarde: de quel ferveur il le tient: de quelle prudence il l'entomne: de quelle affection il le brise: et de quelle diligence il le sugce. Qui l'induict à ce faire? Quel est l'espoir de son estude? quel bien y pretend il? Rien plus qu'un peu de mouelle. Vray est que ce peu, plus est delicieux que le beaucoup de toutes aultres pour ce que la mouelle est aliment elabouré à perfection de nature, comme dict Galen 3. facu. natural. & 11. de usu particu. A l'exemple d'icelluy vo' convient estre saiges pour fleurer sentir & estimer ces beaux livres de haulte gresse, legiers au prochaz: & hardiz à la rencontre. Puis pour curieuse leczon, & meditation frequente rompre l'os, & sugcer la substantificque mouelle. C'est à dire: ce que ientends par ces symboles Pythagoricques, avecques espoir certain d'estre faictz escors & preux à ladicte lecture. Car en icelle bien aultre goust trouverez, & doctrine plus absconce que vous revelera de tresaultz sacremens & mystères horrificques, tant en ce que concerne nostre religion, que aussi l'estat politicq & vie oeconomicque. Croiez en vostre foy qu'oncques Homere escrivent l'Iliade & Odyssée, pensast es allegories, lesquelles de luy ont beluté Plutarche, Heraclides Ponticq, Eustatie, & Phornute: & ce que d'iceulx Politian a desrobé? Si le croiez: vo' n'aprochez ne de pieds ne de mains à mon opinion: qui decrete icelles aussi peu avoir esté songeez d'Homere, que d'Ovide en ses metamorphoses, les sacremens d'evangile: lesquelz un frère Lubin vray croquelardon s'est efforcé desmontrer, si d'adventure il rencontroit gens aussi folz que luy: & (comme dict le proverbe) couvercle digne du chaudron. Si ne le croiez: quelle cause est, pourquoy autant n'en ferez de ces ioyeuses et nouvelles chronicques? Combien que les dictant n'y pensasse en plus que vo' qui paradventure beviez comme moy. Car à la composition de ce livre seigneurial, ie ne perdys ny emploiay oncques plus ny aultre temps, que celluy qui estoit estably à prendre ma refection corporelle: sçavoir est, beuvant et mangeant. Aussi est ce la iuste heure, d'escrire ces haultes matières et sciences profundes. Comme bien faire sçavoit Homere paragon de tous philologes, et Ennie père des poëtes latins, ainsi que tesmoigne Horate, quoy qu'un malautru ait dict, que ses carmes sentoyent plus le vin que l'huile, Autant en dist un Tirelupin de mes livres, mais bren pour luy. L'odeur du vin ô combien plus est friant/ riant/ priant/ plus celeste, & delicieux que d'huile. Et prendray autant à gloire qu'on die de moy, que plus en vin ay despendu que en huyle, que feinst Demosthenes, quand de luy on disoit, que plus en huyle que en vin despendoit. A moy n'est que honneur et gloire, d'estre dict et reputé bon gaultier et bon compaignon: & en ce nom suis bien venu en toutes bonnes compaignies de Pantagruelistes: à Demosthenes fut reproché par un chagrin que ses oraisons sentoyent comme la serpillière d'un hord & sale huilier. Pourtant interpretez tous mes faictz et mes dictz en la perfectissime partie, ayez en reverence le cerveau caseiforme qui vous paist de ces belles billes vezées, et à vostre povoyr tenez moy tousiours ioyeux. Or esbaudissez vous mes amours, & guayement lisez le reste: tout à l'aise du corps et au profict des reins. Mais escoutaz vietz d'azes, que le mau lubec vous trousque: vous soub- vieigne de boyre à my pour la pareille: et ie vous plegeray tout are metys.

MOST noble boozers, and you my very esteemed and poxy friends - for to you and you alone are my writings dedicated - when Alcibiades, in that dialogue of Plato's entitled The Symposium, praises his master Socrates, beyond all doubt the prime of philosophers, he compares him, amongst other things, to a Silenus. Now a Silenus, in ancient days, was a little box, of the kind we see to-day in apothecaries' shops, painted on the outside with such gay, comical figures as harpies, satyrs, bridled geese, horned hares, saddled ducks, flying goats, stags in harness, and other devices of that sort, light- heartedly invented for the purpose of mirth, as was Silenus himself, the master of good old Bacchus. But inside these boxes were kept rare drugs, such as balm, ambergris, cardamum, musk, civet, mineral essences, and other precious things. Just such an object, according to Plato, was Socrates. For to view him from the outside and judge, by his external appearance, no one would have given a shred of an onion for him, so ugly was his body and so absurd his appear- ance, with his pointed nose, his bovine expression, and his idiotic face. More- over his manners were plain and his clothes boorish; he was blessed with little wealth, was unlucky in his wives, and unfit for any public office. What is more, he was always laughing, always drinking glass for glass with everybody, always playing the fool, and always concealing his divine wis- dom. But had you opened that box, you would have found inside a heavenly and priceless drug: a superhuman understanding, miraculous virtue, invin- cible courage, unrivalled sobriety, unfailing contentment, perfect confidence, and an incredible contempt for all those things men so watch for, pursue, work for, sail after, and struggle for. Now what do you think is the purpose of this preamble, of this preliminary flourish? It is that you, my good disciples and other leisured fools, in reading the pleasant titles of certain books of our invention, such as Gargantua, Pantagruel, Toss-pint, On the Dignity of Codpieces, Of Peas and Bacon, cum commerito, &c, may not too easily conclude that they treat of nothing but mockery, fooling, and pleasant fictions; seeing that their outward signs - their titles, that is - are commonly greeted, without further investiga- tion, with smiles of derision. It is wrong, however, to set such small store by the works of men. For, as you yourselves say, the habit does not make the monk; some wear a monkish cloak who are the very reverse of monkish in- side, and some sport a Spanish cape who are far from Spanish in their courage. That is the reason why you must open this book, and carefully weigh up its contents. You will discover then that the drug within is far more valuable than the box promised; that is to say, that the subjects here treated are not so foolish as the title on the cover suggested. But even suppose that in the literal meanings you find jolly enough non- sense, in perfect keeping with the title, you must still not be deterred, as by the Sirens' song, but must interpret in a more sublime sense what you may possibly have thought, at fast, was uttered in mere light-heartedness. Have you ever picked a lock to steal a bottle? Good for you! Call to mind your ex- pression at tine time. Or did you ever see a dog - which is, as Plato says, m the second book of his Republic, the most philosophical creature in the world - discover a marrow-bone? If ever you did, you will have noticed how devotedly he eyes it, how carefully lie guards it, how fervently he holds it, how circumspectly he begins to gnaw it, how lovingly he breaks it, and how diligently he licks it. What induces him to do all this? What hope is there in his labour? What benefit does he expect? Nothing more than a little marrow. It is true that this little is more delicious than great quantities of any other meat; for, as Galen says in his third Book, On the Natural Faculties, and in his eleventh, On the Parts of the Body and their Functions, marrow is the perfect food concocted by Nature. Now you must follow this dog's example, and be wise in smelling out, sampling, and relishing these fine and most juicy books, which are easy to run down but hard to bring to bay. Then, by diligent reading and frequent meditation, you must break the bone and lick out the substantial marrow - that is to say the meaning which I intend to convey by these Pythagorean symbols - in the hope and assurance of becoming both wiser and more cour- ageous by such reading. For here you will find an individual savour and ab- struse teaching which will initiate you into certain very high sacraments and dread mysteries, concerning not only our religion, but also our public and private life. But do you faithfully believe that Homer, in writing his Iliad and Odyssey, ever had in mind the allegories squeezed out of him by Plutarch, Heraclides, Ponticus, Eustathius, and Phornutus, and which Politian after- wards stole from them in his turn? If you do, you are not within a hand's or a foot's length of my opinion. For I believe them to have been as little dreamed of by Homer as the Gospel mysteries were lay Ovid in his Metamorphoses; a case which a certain Friar Lubin, a true bacon-picker, has actually tried to prove, in the hope that he may meet others as crazy as himself and - as the proverb says - a lid to fit his kettle. If you do not believe those arguments, what reason is there that you should not treat these new and jolly chronicles of mine with the same reserve, seeing that as I dictated them I gave no more thought to the matter than you, who were probably drinking at the time, as I was? For I never spent - or wasted - any more - or other - time in the composing of this lordly book, than that fixed for the taking of my bodily refreshment, that is to say for eating and drinking. Indeed, this is the proper time for writing of such high matters and abstruse sciences; as Homer, who was the paragon of all philologers, very well knew, and Emius, the father of the Latin poets too, as Horace testifies, although a certain imbecile declared that his verses smack rather of wine than of oil. There is an upstart who says as much of my books. But a turd for him! How much more appetizing, alluring, and enticing, how much more heavenly and delicious is the smell of wine than the smell of oil! I shall be as proud when men say of me that I spent more on wine than on oil as was Demos- thenes, when he was told that he spend more on oil than on wine. To be called a good companion and fellow-boozer is to me pure honour and glory. For with that reputation I am welcome in all choice companies of Pantagruelists. It was said against Demosthenes by some envious wretch that his Orations smelt like the rag stopper of some foul and filthy oil-lamp. Interpret all my deeds and words, therefore, in the most per feet sense, show deep respect for the cheeselike brain that feeds you on these delicate maggots, and do your best to keep me always merry. Now be cheerful, my dear boys, and read joyfully on for your bodily comfort and to the profit of your digestions. But listen to me, you dunderheads - God rot you! - do not forget to drink my health for the favour, and I'll return you the toast, post-haste.

http://athena.unige.ch/athena/rabelais/rabelais_gargantua.html