Gargantua And Pantagruel

“Then he entered Avignon, where he was barely three days before he fell in love, for (it being a papal domain) the women there enjoy playing at squeeze-crupper.”

This bawdy description of Pantagruel in university is a satire on The Development of Education as well as a dig at staunch Catholicism. Avignon being a papal domain, the women there are lascivious. A “squeeze-crupper” is the back part of the saddle that holds a horse’s harness in place; the reference here is to the women “riding” Pantagruel during sex.

“I intend and will that you acquire a perfect command of languages—first Greek (as Quintilian wishes), secondly Latin, and then Hebrew for the Holy Scriptures, as well as Chaldaean and Arabic likewise—and that, for your Greek, you mould your style by imitating Plato, and for your Latin, Cicero.”

This passage satirizes The Development of Education by poking fun at the excesses of the humanist educational ideal. Pantagruel is supposed to achieve a “perfect command” of at least five languages and, what is more, to model his own styles in Greek and Latin after Plato and Cicero—two of the most famous stylists in the classical world. In this way, Rabelais gently mocks some of the more ambitious humanist ideas about education.

“Science without conscience is the soul’s perdition.”

Gargantua’s advice to Pantagruel states the importance of inquiry with purpose, an important idea for Rabelais, who frequently derides empty pretensions. A misguided thirst for knowledge can divorce the soul from its true purpose, which is the glory of God.

“For the precedent of the Salic Law is that the first fire-raiser to dishorn the cow which snuffs it out in musical plain-song without sol-fa-mi-doh-ing the cobbler’s points must, at the time of the plague, load his poor member by means of moss, gathered when you are starving with the cold at midnight Mass, so as to inflict the strappado on those white wines of Anjou which trip you up, neck for neck like Breton wrestlers. Concluding as above, with expenses, cost, and damages.”

This incoherent argument by Slurp-ffart is a parody on the convoluted nature of legal cases. The statement is deliberately excessive to emphasize the satire—a classic Rabelaisian move (See: Literary Devices).

“Whereupon Panurge pulled on his long codpiece with the tassel attached and stretched it out for a good arm-and-a-half’s length, holding it up in the air with his left hand, and with his right he took out his orange, tossing it seven times into the air; on the eighth he hid it in the palm of his right which he quietly held up high. He then began waggling his beautiful codpiece about, exposing it to Thaumaste.”

The codpiece—a piece of armor worn over men’s private parts—leads to much humor in the text. Panurge’s codpiece is especially mentioned in Book 1, its decorations signifying Panurge’s display of manliness and intent to emasculate his opponents, as he does here with Thaumaste. Panurge waves his codpiece to Thaumaste during their wordless argument, in a scene rife with the potential for physical comedy. That Thaumaste—Thomas—is the prototype of the English Thomas provides extra levity, since the emasculation of Thomas signifies France besting England.

“Panurge had not finished his speech before all the dogs in that church came over to the lady following the flair of the materia medica he had sprinkled all over her. Every dog came, big and small, plump and skinny, all cocking a leg, sniffing about her and piddling all over her.”

Panurge’s humiliation of the grand dame who rejects him is played for laughs, but is a problematic example of the comedy of cruelty and The Treatment of Women. The lady is dehumanized and soiled for her rejection of Panurge. Panurge’s mistreatment of the lady reflects misogynistic humor common at the time.

“Laughter’s the property of man.”

This line is the last in an address to the reader at the beginning of Book 2 and perfectly sums up Rabelais’s philosophy in composing his texts: He wants to make people laugh because laughter is the natural state of human beings. To laugh is to be human.

“Does not Solomon say (Proverbs I), ‘The simple believeth every word,’ and Saint Paul (I Corinthians 13), ‘Charity believeth all things.’ So why should you not believe it? Because you say there is no apparency. And I tell you that, for that reason alone you ought to believe it in perfect faith, for the Sorbonnists say that ‘faith is the evidence of things having no apparency’!”

The narrator addresses the reader directly in a mock-supplication to believe the fantastic story of the birth of Gargantua, but uses the occasion to mock the Sorbonne censors, reflecting the theme of Ridiculing and Reforming Religion in the novel. The references to the Bible are an example of Scriptural allusions in the text.

“He was forever wallowing in the mire, dirtying his nose, scrabbling his face, treading down the backs of his shoes, gaping at flies and chasing the butterflies (over whom his father held sway); he would pee in his shoes, shit over his shirt-tails […] dribble snot into his soup and go galumphing about.”

The description of Gargantua’s childhood is a parody of glorious infancy narratives of heroes. Unlike the heroes who were performing brave deeds even as babies, Gargantua is dribbling snot in his soup and creating a mess, making him a mock-heroic figure.

“O my!’ said Grandgousier. ‘How clever you are, my little boykin! One of these days—soon—I’ll have you made a Doctor of the Sorbonne. By God I will. You are wiser than your years. Now do, I pray, get on with your bottom-wiping topic.”

Grandgousier’s love for Gargantua’s intellect arises from the methodical way Gargantua approaches the topic of wiping one’s bottom. The humor here is multifaceted, one derived from the scientific zeal with which Gargantua applies himself to the subject. The other is through the dig at the Sorbonne censors: Gargantua’s preoccupation with bottom-wiping means he should be made Doctor of the Sorbonne.

“There is nothing more true than that frock and cowl attract people’s odium, insults and curses exactly as the wind called Caecias attracts the clouds […] So too a monk—I mean the lazy ones—never ploughs like the peasant, never guards the land like the soldier, never cures the sick like the physician.”

Gargantua’s explanation of why monks are subject to jeering is a serious examination of issues plaguing clerical organization. The caveat here is that he is referring only to “lazy” monks; industrious monks may pave the way to reform and change. This passage is another example of Ridiculing and Reforming Religion in the text.

“There was no greater lunacy in the world than to rule your life by the sound of a bell and not according to the dictates of good sense and intelligence.”

Gargantua rejects the dictates of clock time and the rigid enforcement of alarms in religious orders. In Theleme, time will flow organically. The ideal monastic community is a parody of some of the “ideal state” texts that were popular during the Renaissance.

“There was but one clause in their Rule: Do what thou wilt, because people who are free, well bred, well taught and conversant with honorable company have by nature an instinct—a goad—which always pricks them towards virtuous acts and withdraws them from vice. They called it Honor.”

The Abbey of the Thelemites is the closest the text gets to depicting an ideal polity. Reflecting Rabelais’s humanistic, liberal ideals, the abbey is self-governing. The notion that people bred to be good will default to honor is another humorous commentary on The Development of Education and the humanist belief in the civilizing influence of the right education. Rabelais may not quite have believed the ideal himself, which is why the abbey remains a theoretical space.

“‘By Saint Goderan,’ said the Monk, ‘I think it is the description of a tennis-match and that the “round globe” is the ball; the ‘guts’ and the ‘innards’ of the ‘innocent beasts’ are the rackets; and the folk who are het up and wrangling are the players. The end means that, after such travails, they go off for a meal! And be of good cheer!”

This passage is another example of Rabelais’s irreverent comedy: Jean’s interpretation of the sacred enigma found in the foundations of the Thelemite Abbey is that it describes a tennis match. The joke here is that, for Gargantua, the enigmatic passage seems to be about the divine truth. Jean’s interpretation echoes Rabelais’s exhortation not to take life too seriously.

“All of which is achieved by loans and debts from one to another—hence the term, the marriage debt: for anyone who refuses it Nature establishes a punishment: an acrid torment amongst the members and madness amongst the senses; to the lender, as a reward, are assigned pleasure, joy and sensual delight.”

Panurge shows he can use any argument to prove his point; here, he argues lending and borrowing are natural because married couples lend and borrow each other’s seeds. Those who do not, suffer torment by abstinence. The use of a sexual metaphor for usury shows Rabelais’s inventiveness with language and his tendency toward bawdy humor.

“I have a flea in my ear. I need to get married.”

“A flea in one’s ear” was a euphemism for having an itch, that is, being beset with sexual desire. Panurge thinks that since he feels desire, he should marry. This is consistent with the text’s position that marriage is a logical and acceptable way to creatively utilize and contain lust. Panurge’s deadpan delivery lends even more humor to the common expression.

“If the signs anger you, O how much will the things they signify!”

Pantagruel’s terse words to Panurge after Nazdecabre signs he will be cuckolded may be rational enough, but reek of cruelty. He is here the caricature of the man obsessed with logos (logic) to an extreme.

“Cuckoldom is naturally one of the adjuncts of matrimony.”

Rondibilis, the physician, makes this pronouncement to Panurge, reflecting The Treatment of Women and common female stereotypes of the time. This is one of many cuckoldry jokes in the text, with the cuckold being a great source of humor during the Renaissance (See: Symbols & Motifs).

“By the sages of Antiquity the Mean was called Golden, that is to say, precious, praised by all, and everywhere delightful. Study the books of the Holy Bible and you will find that the prayers of those who asked with moderation have never been rejected.”

Not only do these lines show the prevalent belief in the Golden Mean or the principle of moderation, but they are also an example of Rabelais’s humanistic syncretism. The narrator quotes the texts of antiquity and the Bible in the same breath, conferring them equal authority.

“He invoked to his aid all the blessed saints, male and female, asseverating that he would make his confession in due time and place. He then cried out in great terror, ‘Chief Steward! Ho! My friend, my father, my uncle! Serve up the salty bits! […] Would to God and to the Blessed, worthy and sacred Virgin that now—I mean at this very minute—I was on terra firma, thoroughly at my ease.’”

Panurge’s frantic prayers when he is petrified show his superstitious and fearful side. Furthermore, he also invokes his father, uncle, and all the blessed saints in the same breath. Panurge’s opportunistic invocation of divine aid when frightened is another component of Ridiculing and Reforming Religion in the text.

“‘One day,’ said Frere Jean, ‘I was at Seuille when I wiped my bum with a leaf from some wretched old Clementines which Jean Guymard, our bursar, had chucked away in our cloister meadows: I give myself to all the devils if fistulas and hemorrhoids did not so horribly come upon me that the poor old hole of my C/os Bruneau became all lacerated.’”

Pantagruel and his friends mock the Papimanes’s love for their decretals with a generous dose of scandalous, scatological humor, reflecting the theme of Ridiculing and Reforming Religion.

“As an entree, big moulded candles were served, except that the queen was served with a fat, erect, flaming torch of white wax, a little red round the tip.”

An example of the writer’s use of profane, sexual humor, this passage describes the food of the queen of the Lanterns. The Lanterns are cleverly shown to eat wax, but the candle the queen is served is distinctly phallic in shape.

“The fates lead the willing: the unwilling they drag.” 

This passage is a translation of a Latin inscription in the Temple of the Oracle of Bouteille. This pithy saying stresses the importance of accepting fate, rather than fearing uncertainty, foreshadowing Panurge’s decision to marry despite the risks of being a cuckold.