Gargantua and Pantagruel, Complete - The Original Classic Edition. Rabelais François

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       Why am not I, said Minos, there invited?

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       Unless it be myself, not one's omitted:

       And then it is their mind, I do no more

       Of frogs and oysters send them any store:

       In case they spare my life and prove but civil, I give their sale of distaffs to the devil.

       To quell him comes Q.B., who limping frets

       At the safe pass of tricksy crackarets:

       The boulter, the grand Cyclops' cousin, those Did massacre, whilst each one wiped his nose: Few ingles in this fallow ground are bred,

       But on a tanner's mill are winnowed.

       Run thither all of you, th' alarms sound clear,

       You shall have more than you had the last year.

       Short while thereafter was the bird of Jove Resolved to speak, though dismal it should prove; Yet was afraid, when he saw them in ire,

       They should o'erthrow quite flat down dead th' empire. He rather choosed the fire from heaven to steal,

       To boats where were red herrings put to sale;

       Than to be calm 'gainst those, who strive to brave us,

       And to the Massorets' fond words enslave us.

       All this at last concluded gallantly,

       In spite of Ate and her hern-like thigh,

       Who, sitting, saw Penthesilea ta'en,

       In her old age, for a cress-selling quean.

       Each one cried out, Thou filthy collier toad,

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       Doth it become thee to be found abroad? Thou hast the Roman standard filch'd away, Which they in rags of parchment did display.

       Juno was born, who, under the rainbow, Was a-bird-catching with her duck below: When her with such a grievous trick they plied That she had almost been bethwacked by it. The bargain was, that, of that throatful, she Should of Proserpina have two eggs free;

       And if that she thereafter should be found, She to a hawthorn hill should be fast bound.

       Seven months thereafter, lacking twenty-two, He, that of old did Carthage town undo,

       Did bravely midst them all himself advance,

       Requiring of them his inheritance; Although they justly made up the division, According to the shoe-welt-law's decision, By distributing store of brews and beef

       To these poor fellows that did pen the brief.

       But th' year will come, sign of a Turkish bow, Five spindles yarn'd, and three pot-bottoms too, Wherein of a discourteous king the dock

       Shall pepper'd be under an hermit's frock.

       Ah! that for one she hypocrite you must

       Permit so many acres to be lost!

       Cease, cease, this vizard may become another,

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       Withdraw yourselves unto the serpent's brother.

       'Tis in times past, that he who is shall reign With his good friends in peace now and again. No rash nor heady prince shall then rule crave, Each good will its arbitrement shall have;

       And the joy, promised of old as doom

       To the heaven's guests, shall in its beacon come. Then shall the breeding mares, that benumb'd were, Like royal palfreys ride triumphant there.

       And this continue shall from time to time, Till Mars be fetter'd for an unknown crime; Then shall one come, who others will surpass, Delightful, pleasing, matchless, full of grace. Cheer up your hearts, approach to this repast, All trusty friends of mine; for he's deceased, Who would not for a world return again,

       So highly shall time past be cried up then.

       He who was made of wax shall lodge each member

       Close by the hinges of a block of timber.

       We then no more shall Master, master, whoot, The swagger, who th' alarum bell holds out; Could one seize on the dagger which he bears, Heads would be free from tingling in the ears, To baffle the whole storehouse of abuses.

       The thus farewell Apollo and the Muses.

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       Chapter 1.III.

       How Gargantua was carried eleven months in his mother's belly.

       Grangousier was a good fellow in his time, and notable jester; he loved to drink neat, as much as any man that then was in the world, and would willingly eat salt meat. To this intent he was ordinarily well furnished

       with gammons of bacon, both of Westphalia, Mayence and Bayonne, with store

       of dried neat's tongues, plenty of links, chitterlings and puddings in

       their season; together with salt beef and mustard, a good deal of hard roes of powdered mullet called botargos, great provision of sausages, not of Bolonia (for he feared the Lombard Boccone), but of Bigorre, Longaulnay, Brene, and Rouargue. In the vigour of his age he married Gargamelle, daughter to the King of the Parpaillons, a jolly pug, and well-mouthed wench. These two did oftentimes do the two-backed beast together, joyfully rubbing and frotting their bacon 'gainst one another, in so far, that at

       last she became great with child of a fair son, and went with him unto the eleventh month; for so long, yea longer, may a woman carry her great belly, especially when it is some masterpiece of nature, and a person predestinated to the performance, in his due time, of great exploits. As

       Homer says, that the child, which Neptune begot upon the nymph, was born a whole year after the conception, that is, in the twelfth month. For, as

       Aulus Gellius saith, lib. 3, this long time was suitable to the majesty of Neptune, that in it the child might receive his perfect form. For the like reason Jupiter made the night, wherein he lay with Alcmena, last

       forty-eight hours, a shorter time not being sufficient for the forging of

       Hercules, who cleansed the world of the monsters and tyrants wherewith it

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       was suppressed. My masters, the ancient Pantagruelists, have confirmed that which I say, and withal declared it to be not only possible, but also maintained the lawful birth and legitimation of the infant born of a woman in the eleventh month after the decease of her husband. Hypocrates, lib.

       de alimento. Plinius, lib. 7, cap. 5. Plautus, in his Cistelleria.

       Marcus Varro, in his satire inscribed The Testament, alleging to this purpose the authority of Aristotle. Censorinus, lib. de die natali. Arist. lib. 7, cap. 3 & 4, de natura animalium. Gellius, lib. 3, cap. 16. Servius, in his exposition upon this verse of СКАЧАТЬ