Panurge |
Panurge - all doer - first appears in Chapter 9 of Pantagruel, a man of “handsome build, elegant in all his features, but pitifully wounded in various places, and in so sorry a state that he looked as if he had escaped from the dogs.” He was then about 35 years old, a bit of a lecher, and naturally subject to an illness called faulte d'argent. But he had 63 different ways of getting money, the most honorable of which was theft. He was weak-kneed and shuddered at the mere shadow of danger. Eager to marry, he froze at the thought of being cheated upon. In attempting to solve his conundrum, he consulted the Homeric and Virgilian lots, he threw the dice, he interpreted his dreams, he consulted a sibyl, he consulted a theologian, he consulted a doctor, a lawyer, a philosopher, a fool. Finally he determined to consult the Oracle of the Bottle. This disquisition occupies the Third Book. Brewer claims the whole affair was caused by the Church’s argument over the celibacy of the clergy, which went to Panurge’s head. « PANTAGRUELION » |