than the reed to the fern,
Original French: que le Rouſeau à la Fougere:
Modern French: que le Rouseau à la Fougère:
Among the examples of pairings whose antipathies are not as vehement as the hatred thieves have of a certain usage of Pantagruelion.
Notes
rouseau
A flower which flyes away with the wind like the downe of a thistle; also, the hearbe Water-torch, Cats-taile, red Mace, March Pestill, Douch downe.
Reeds to Ferns
Pliny xxiv. 11, § 50.
The Five Books and Minor Writings. Volume 1: Books I-III
William Francis Smith [1842–1919], translator
London: Alexader P. Watt, 1893
Archive.org
reeds to ferns
Harundinis genera xxviii demonstravimus, non aliter evidentiore illa naturae vi quam continuis his voluminibus tractamus, siquidem harundinis radix contrita inposita filicis stirpem corpore extrahit, item harundinem filicis radix.
I have pointed out [See XVI. § 156 ff] twenty-eight kinds of reed, and nowhere is more obvious that force of Nature which I describe in these books one after another, if indeed the root of the reed, crushed and applied, draws a fern stem out of the flesh, while the root of the fern does the same to a splinter of reed.
The Natural History. Volume 7: Books 24–27
24.50
William Henry Samuel Jones [1876–1963], translator
Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1956
Loeb Classical Library
le rouseau à la fougere
Allusion à diverses susperstitions relevées par Pline: «Aiunt et circa solstitium avulsas [filices] non renasci, nec arudine sectas nec exaratas arundine vomeri imposita» (XVIII, 8). Et ailleurs (XXIV, 50), la racine de roseau broyée et appliquée fait sortir les échardes de fougère entrées dans la peau, et réciproquement la racine de fougère tire les échardes de roseau. — De quel roseau s’agit-il ici? Pline en mentionne vingt-neuf espèces. L’arundo des Latins est géneralement A. phragmaties, L., roseau à balais; et le roseau à flûte des poètes A. donax, L., roseau à quenouille.
Oeuvres. Tome Cinquieme: Tiers Livre. Édition critique
p. 358
Abel Lefranc [1863-1952], editor
Paris: Librairie Ancienne Honoré Champion, 1931
Archive.org
reeds to ferns
aiunt et circa solstitium avolsas non renasci nec harundine sectas aut exaratas vomeri harundine inposita.
It is also said that ferns plucked up about midsummer do not spring up again, nor do those cut with a reed or ploughed up with a reed placed on the ploughshare.
The Natural History. Volume 5: Books 17–19
18.08
Harris Rackham [1868–1944], translator
Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1950
Loeb Classical Library
le rouseau à la fougere
Selon Pline XXV, 50, les fougères coupés à l’aide d’un rouseau ne repoussent pas (EC).
Le Tiers Livre. Edition critique
Michael A. Screech [b. 1926], editor
Paris-Genève: Librarie Droz, 1964
than reed is to brake
than reed is to brake (brake cut with a reed will not grow again, and a preparation of either, ground and applied to the skin, will draw out thorns of the other, embedded in the body).
Complete works of Rabelais
Jacques LeClercq [1891–1971], translator
New York: Modern Library, 1936
que le Rouseau à la Fougère
Les fougères brisées par un roseau ne repousseraient pas (Pline, XVIII, viii).
Œuvres complètes
p. 505, n. 18
Mireille Huchon, editor
Paris: Gallimard, 1994