The Complete Works of Francois Rabelais

Front Cover
University of California Press, 1991 - Literary Collections - 1067 pages
Rip-roaring and rib-tickling, François Rabelais's irreverent story of the giant Gargantua, his giant son Pantagruel, and their companion Panurge is a classic of the written word. This complete translation by Donald Frame, helpfully annotated for the nonspecialist, is a masterpiece in its own right, bringing to twentieth-century English all the exuberance and invention of the original sixteenth-century French. A final part containing all the rest of Rabelais's known writings, including his letters, supplements the five books traditionally known as Gargantua and Pantagruel.

This great comic narrative, written in hugely popular installments over more than two decades, was unsparingly satirical of scholarly pomposity and the many abuses of religious, legal, and political power. The books were condemned at various times by the Sorbonne and narrowly escaped being banned. Behind Rabelais's obvious pleasure in lampooning effete erudition and the excesses of society is the humanist's genuine love of knowledge and belief in the basic goodness of human nature. The bawdy wit and uninhibited zest for life that characterize his unlikely trio of travelers have delighted readers and inspired other writers ever since the exploits of Gargantua and Pantagruel first appeared.
 

Contents

Abbreviations
xix
Translators Note
xxv
BOOK
1
piot wine
21
How Gargantua was put under other teachers
39
How Gargantua was taught by Ponocrates in such a regimen that
55
How Picrochole took by storm La Roche Clermauld and
69
How Gymnaste killed Captain Tripet and others of Picrocholes
82
How Frère Jean makes trial of the nature of the Shysteroos
472
End of the tempest
485
How Pantagruel passed the island of Coverup which was ruled
498
How Fastilent is anatomized and described by Xenomanes
500
Anatomy of Fastilent as regards the outward parts
503
Continuation of Fastilents physical features
505
How Pantagruel sighted a monstrous physeter near the Wild Island
508
How Pantagruel slew the monstrous physeter
509

How Gargantua in combing his hair made artillery shells fall out of it
86
How Gargantua in a salad ate six pilgrims
88
How the monk was feasted by Gargantua and his fine talk at supper
90
Why monks are shunned by everyone and why some people have bigger noses than others
92
How the monk put Gargantua to sleep and of his hours and breviary
95
How the monk encourages his companions and how he hanged from a tree
97
How Picrocholes scouting party was met by Gargantua and how the monk killed Captain Tiravant Forward March and then was taken prisoner by the...
99
How the monk got rid of his guards and how Picrocholes scouting party was defeated
101
How the monk brought the pilgrims and the kind words that Grandgousier spoke to them
103
How Grandgousier humanely treated his prisoner Blowhard
105
How Grandgousier sent for his legions and how Blowhard killed Hastycalf then was killed by order of Picrochole
107
How Gargantua attacked Picrochole in La Roche Clermauld and defeated the said Picrocholes army
109
How Picrochole in flight was surprised by ill fortune and what Gargantua did after the battle III
111
The speech that Gargantua made to the vanquished
112
How the Gargantuist victors were rewarded after the battle
115
How Gargantua built for the monk the abbey of Thélème
116
How the abbey of the Thélémites was built and endowed
118
Inscription placed over the great gate of Thélème
120
How the manor of the Thélémites ran
123
How the religious of Thélème men and women were dressed
124
How the Thélémites were regulated in their way of life
126
A prophetic riddle
127
Dizain by Master Hugues Salel To the Author of this Book
132
language
150
How Pantagruel found Panurge whom he loved all his life
163
How Panurge made a monkey of the Englishman who argued
198
How Panurge was smitten by a great lady of Paris
203
How Pantagruel set up a trophy in memory of their exploits
219
How Pantagruel entered the city of the Amaurots and
236
The Third Book of the Heroic Deeds and Sayings
247
Prologue of the Author Master François Rabelais
253
How Pantagruel transported a colony of Utopians into
261
debtors
271
How Pantagruel points out to Panurge that advice about marriage
284
matter of salt beef
301
sibyl of Panzoust
308
How Pantagruel praises the counsel of mutes
311
How Goatsnose replies to Panurge in signs
314
How Panurge takes counsel of an old French poet named Raminagrobis
317
How Panurge champions the order of the mendicant friars
319
How Panurge makes a speech for returning to Raminagrobis
321
How Panurge takes counsel of Epistémon
325
How Panurge takes counsel of Her Trippa
327
How Panurge takes counsel of Frère Jean des Entommeures
331
How Frère Jean joyously advises Panurge
337
How Frère Jean comforts Panurge about his fear of cuckoldry
339
How Pantagruel calls a meeting of a theologian a doctor a jurist and a philosopher to help Panurges perplexity
347
How Hippothadée the theologian gives advice to Panurge on the undertaking of marriage
349
How Rondibilis the doctor advises Panurge
351
How Rondibilis declares that cuckoldry is naturally one of the attributes of marriage
355
How Rondibilis the doctor gives a remedy for cuckoldry
358
How women ordinarily covet forbidden things
360
How Trouillogan the philosopher treats the difficulty of marriage
362
Continuation of the replies of Trouillogan the ephectic and Pyrrhonian philosopher
364
How Pantagruel persuades Panurge to take counsel of some fool
369
How Triboullet is blazoned by Pantagruel and Panurge
371
How Pantagruel attends the trial of Judge Bridoye who decided lawsuits by the chance of dice
375
How Bridoye explains the reasons why he examined the lawsuits that he decided by the chance of dice
377
How Bridoye tells the story of the settler of lawsuits
380
How lawsuits are born and how they come to perfection
384
How Pantagruel excuses Bridoye about the verdicts rendered by the chance of dice
388
How Epistémon tells a strange story of the perplexities of human judgment
390
How Panurge takes counsel of Triboullet
392
How Pantagruel and Panurge diversely interpret the words
394
How Pantagruel made his preparations to put out to sea and
401
How a certain kind of Pantagruelion cannot be consumed
409
Old Prologue
415
Liminary Epistle of January 28 1552 To the Very Illustrious Prince
421
How Pantagruel put out to sea to visit the oracle of the divine
437
How Pantagruel encountered a ship with travelers returning from
447
How Pantagruel went ashore on the island of Cheli which
458
How Pantagruel goes ashore on the Wild Island ancient abode of the Chitterlings
511
How an ambush is laid against Pantagruel by the wild Chitterlings
513
How Pantagruel sent for Captains Gobblechitterling and Chopsausage with a noteworthy discourse on the proper names of places and persons
515
How Chitterlings are not to be despised among humans
518
How Frère Jean joins forces with the cooks to combat the Chitterlings
519
How Frère Jean is set up in the sow and the valiant cooks are enclosed in it
521
How Pantagruel snapped the Chitterlings over his knee
526
How Pantagruel parleys with Niphleseth queen of the Chitterlings
528
How Pantagruel went ashore on the island of Ruach
530
How little rains beat down great winds
531
How Pantagruel went ashore on the island of the Popefigs
533
How the little devil was fooled by a farmer from Popefigland
536
How the devil was fooled by an old woman of Popefigland
538
How Pantagruel went ashore on the island of the Papimaniacs
540
How Grosbeak bishop of the Papimaniacs showed us the uranopète Decretals
542
How by Grosbeak we were shown the archetype of a pope
544
Small talk during dinner in praise of the Decretals
546
Continuation of the miracles occasioned by the Decretals
548
How by virtue of the Decretals gold is subtly drawn from France into Rome
552
How Grosbeak gave Pantagruel some goodChristian pears
554
How on the high seas Pantagruel heard some unfrozen words
556
How among the frozen words Pantagruel found some lusty
558
Of the ridiculous statue called Manduce and how and what
564
How Gaster invented the methods of getting and preserving
574
How no answer was given by Pantagruel to the problems
581
How near the island of Ganabin at Pantagruels commandment
587
Brief Declaration
593
BOOK 5
609
How Pantagruel arrived on the Ringing Island and of the noise
615
How the birds of the Ringing Island are fed
623
How Panurge tells Aeditus the fable of the charger and the donkey
625
How Popehawk was shown us with great difficulty
628
How we went ashore on the island of Ironware
631
How Pantagruel arrived on Sharpers Island
632
How we passed the Wicket abode of Clutchpuss archduke of the Furred Cats
634
How a riddle is propounded by Clutchpuss
637
How Panurge explains Clutchpusss riddle
638
How the Furred Cats live on corruption
640
How Frère Jean des Entommeures determines to sack the Furred Cats
642
How we passed Beyond and how Panurge nearly got killed there
645
How we ran aground and how we were helped by some travelers from dependencies of the Quint
646
How we reached the kingdom of Quint Essence named Entelechy
649
How the Quint Essence cured the sick by songs
650
How the queen spent her time after dinner
653
How the officers of the Quint operate diversely and how the queen kept us on in the estate of Abstractors
655
How the queen was served at supper and how she ate
657
How in the presence of the Quint was performed a joyous ball in the form of a tourney
659
How the thirtytwo persons in the ball fight
661
How we went ashore on the island of Odes where the roads go places
665
How we stopped on the island of Clogs and of the order of the Semiquaver Minimal Friars
667
How Panurge questioning a Semiquaver Friar got no answer from him except in monosyllables
671
How Epistémon dislikes the institution of Lent
676
How we visited the land of Satin
678
How in the land of Satin we saw Hearsay running a school for witnesses
681
How we came in sight of Lanternland
683
How we disembarked at the port of the Lichnobians and entered Lanternland
684
How we reached the oracle of the Bottle
685
How the temple was paved with an admirable mosaic
692
How the temple was lighted by a marvelous lamp
698
How Bacbuc accoutered Panurge to get the word of
705
How Panurge and the others rhyme in poetic frenzy
711
A32 How the lady lanterns were served at supper
721
To Guillaume Budé March 4 1521 Letter in Latin with much
735
TiraqueauManardi July 9 1532 Dedicatory Epistle
741
To Amaury Bouchard September 4 1532 Dedicatory Epistle
745
Almanac for 1535 Late 1534
760
To Estienne Dolet Undated 1538 or before Latin dizain about
777
Sapphic Ode 15491551 By the Most Reverend Cardinal Jean
801
Glossary
947
Copyright

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About the author (1991)

One of the leading humanist writers of the French Renaissance, Rabelais was at first a Franciscan and then a Benedictine monk, a celebrated physician and professor of anatomy, and later cure of Meudon. The works of Rabelais are filled with life to the overflowing, hence the term "Rabelaisian." His principal protagonists, Gargantua and his son, Pantagruel, are appropriately giants, not only in size, but also in spirit and action. The five books of their adventures are separate works, containing, in different measure, adventures, discussions, farcical scenes, jokes, games, satires, philosophical commentaries, and anything else that a worldly, learned man of genius such as Rabelais could pour into his work. His style is innovative and idiosyncratic, marked by humorous neologisms made up from the learned languages, Greek and Latin, side by side with the most earthy, humble, and rough words of the street and barnyard. His Gargantua, published in 1534, satirizes the traditional education of Parisian theologians and, in the Abbe de Theleme episode, recommends a free, hedonistic society of handsome young men and women in contrast to the restrictive life of monasticism. The gigantic scope of Rabelais's work also reflects the Renaissance thirst for encyclopedic knowledge.

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