Notes

extinguishes the semen

Cannabis in silvis primum nata est, nigrior foliis et asperior. semen eius extinguere genituram dicitur. sucus ex eo vermiculos aurium et quodcumque animal intraverit eicit, sed cum dolore capitis, tantaque vis ei est ut aquae infusus coagulare eam dicatur. et ideo iumentorum alvo succurrit potus in aqua. radix articulos contractos emollit in aqua cocta, item podagras et similes impetus. ambustis cruda inlinitur, sed saepius mutatur priusquam arescat.

Hemp at first grew in woods, with a darker and rougher leaf. Its seed is said to make the genitals impotent. The juice from it drives out of the ears the worms and any other creature that has entered them, but at the cost of a headache; so potent is its nature that when poured into water it is said to make it coagulate. And so, drunk in their water, it regulates the bowels of beasts of burden. The root boiled in water eases cramped joints, gout too and similar violent pains [Cf. § 228 and note on XXII. § 122]. It is applied raw to burns, but is often changed before it gets dry.

Cannabis

Dioscorides 3.165 Kannabis Emeros. Cannabis [some call it Cannabium, some Schoenostrophon, some Asterion, ye Romans Cannabis] is a plant of much use in this life for ye twistings of very strong ropes, it bears leaves like to the Ash, of a bad scent, long stalks, empty, a round seed, which being eaten of much doth quench geniture, but being juiced when it is green is good for the pains of the ears.

semence

Semence: Seed; also, seeding or sowing time; also, a sowing of seed; aso, the seed, sperme, or nature of man or beast; and hence, the originall, beginning, chiefe root, principall author, of a thing.

Telle semence telle moiflon: Proverbial, Looke how you sow so shall you reape.

La Semence generative

La Semence generative] Voiez Pline, l. 20 chap 23

Procreative, &c.

See Pliny l. 20 c. 24.

but in man destroys the procreative germs

“Semen ejus exstinguere genituram virorum dicitur” (Pliny N.H. xx. 23 ch 97).

Chapter 31. How Rondibilis the Physician counselleth Panurge

[re. Hempseed]

Chapter 31. How Rondibilis the Physician counselleth Panurge

I find in our faculty of Medicine — and we have taken it from the Determination of the ancient Platonics — that carnal Concupiscence is restrained by five means.

By wine…

Secondly, by certain drugs and plants. which make a man chilled, bewitched, and impotent for generation. We have experience of it in Nymphea [25.7.37], Heraclea, Willow of Ameria [24.9.37], Hemp-seed [20.23.97], Honey-suckle [27.12.94], Tamarisk [24.9.41], Agnus-castus[24.9.38], Mandrake [24.13.94], Hemlock [25.13.95], the small Orchis [26.10.62; HP 9.18.3], the Skin of Hippopotamus [28.8.31], and others, which, received within the human Body, by their elementary Virtues as well as by their specific Properties, freeze and mortify the prolific Germ, or dissipate the Spirits which ought to conduct it to the Places destined for it by Nature, or obstruct the Passages and Conduits, by which it might have been ejected…

[notes from Pliny]

estainct en l’homme la semence generative

Le chanvre indien (Cannabis sativa, L. var. indica) est un antispasmodique encore prescrit contre le satyriasis : « Semen ejus extinguere genituram vivorum dicitur. » Pline, XX, 97. — Que la semence du chanvre soit antiaphrodisiaque, c’est l’opinion de Dioscoride, de Pline, de Galien, d’Oribase, d’Aétius, de Paul d’Egine. Cependant, Galien observe, d’autre part (De alim. facult., L I, ch. 34), que d’aucuns croquent le grain de chanvre, grillé avec d’autres desserts, pour s’exciter à la volupté. C’etait encore, au XVIIe siècle, une opinion courante chez les Persans, au rapport d’Œlschlœger, et il y a moins de 50 ans, d’après Mattia di Martino, les paysans siciliens employaient le chanvre comme talisman amoureux. Cf. A. Garrigues, Où l’on voit un oubli de Rabelais conduire à une erreur thérapeutique, Vox Medica, no 4, 20 septembre 1928, p. 8-11. (Paul Delaunay)

estainct en l’homme la semence generative

Pline XX, 97.

estaince la semence generative

Pline, XX, 23, écrit du chanvre: «On dit que sa graine fait entierement perdre le sperme aux hommes» (trad. Du Pinet).

Provient

Provenir: To issue, come, step, or spring forth; to proceed from.

Provient… dessoubs

Addition de 1552.

Notes

divine numbers

numero deus impare gaudet.
In an uneven number heaven delights.

Divins & mysterieux

Voiez Macrobe, sur le Songe de Scipion.

divine numbers

See Macrobius, On Scipio’s Dream.

tant divins & mysterieux

Voyez Macrobe sur le songe de Scipion.

divine and mysterious

“Numero deius impare gaudet” (Virgil Ec. viii 75). Cf. also Macrobius ad Somn. Scip. i. cc. 5,6.

nombres impars, tant divins et mysterieux

Les feuilles du chanvre sont composées de 5 à 7 folioles. Rabelais fait ici allusion à la théorie des nombres : l’importance des jours critiques impairs avait été signalée par Hippocrate ; et le nombre 7, sur lequel Cornélius Agrippa a amplement disserté, marquait les années climatériques, et bien d’autres choses encore. Numero deus impare gaudet, écrivait déjà Virgile. (Paul Delaunay)

nombres divins & mysterieux

La signification mystique des nombres, d’origine pythagoricienne, était bien connue au moyen âge comme au XVIe siècle. Pour les nombres impairs, cf. Erasme, Adages, I. I. II, Amicitia aequalitas «…Superis quidem imparibus sacrificandum , ingferis vero paribus ».

impars

Les Anciens avaient établi une symbolique des nombres, les nombres impairs ayant une signification importante; cf. l’adage : «les dieux aiment l’impair».

impars tant divins & mysterieux

Pour Pythagore, le nombre impair est immortel. Voir Virgile, Bucoliques, VIII, v. 75.

nombres impars, divins et mysterieux

Les feuilles du chanvre sont composées de cinq à sept folioles. La signification mystique de ces deux nombres est courrament rappelée à la Renaissance, par exemple par Agrippa, De la philosophie occulte, II, VIII et X.

Notes

Cannabis. Sativa, Linn.

Seven

Seven was also a perfect number, as corresponding to the number of celestial orbits (including the sun, the moon, and the five known planets), the number of days in the quarter of the moon’s revolution, and the number of the gates of sense (so to speak), mouth, eyes, ears, and nostrils.

Notes

Eupatorium

Eupatorium (text)

Eupatorium

Canapis

Seems more similar to eupatorium than to cannabis.

Eupatorium cannabinum

Plate caption: Eupatorium adulterinum
Kunigunt kraut

Eupatorium cannabinum L.
English: hemp agrimony
French: eupatoire
German: Wasserdostkraut

eupatorium

Eupatoria quoque regiam auctoritatem habet, caulis lignosi, nigricantis, hirsuti, cubitalis et aliquando amplioris, foliis per intervalla quinquefolii aut cannabis per extremitates incisis quinquepertito, nigris et ipsis plumosisque, radice supervacua. semen dysintericis in vino potum auxiliatur unice.

Eupatoria [Eupator was a surname of Mithridates VI, King of Pontus. See § 62 and XXXIII. § 151.] too enjoys the prestige of a royal discoverer. It has a ligneous stem, dark, hairy, and a cubit or sometimes more in height; the leaves, arranged at intervals, are like those of cinquefoil or hemp, and have five indentations along the edge; they too are dark and feathery. The root is useless, but the seed taken in wine is a sovereign remedy in cases of dysentery.

1544

Cannabis, Du chanvre. Cannabis erratica similis est Eupatorio.

eupatoire

Read Eupatorium or Eupatoria, Eupator was not the Herb itself, but the King from whom it had its name.

eupatoire

Sorte d’herbe médicale.

chanvre

CHANVRE, s. m. (Hist. nat.) cannabis, genre de plante à fleurs sans pétales, composée de plusieurs étamines soûtenues sur un calice, & stérile, comme l’a observé Cæsalpin. Les embryons sont sur les plants qui ne portent point de fleurs; iis deviennent des capsules qui renferment une semence arrondie. Tournefort, Inst. rei herb.

On connoît deux sortes de chanvre, le sauvage, & le domestique.

Le sauvage, cannabis erratica, paludosa, sylvestris, Ad. Lobel. est un genre de plante dont les feuilles sont assez semblables à celles du chanvre domestique, hormis qu’elles sont plus petites. plus noires, & plus rudes; du reste cette plante ressemble à la guimauve, quant à ses tiges, sa graine, & sa racine.

Le chanvre domestique dont il s’agit ici, est caractérisé par nos Botanistes de la maniere suivante.

Ses feuilles disposées en main ouverte naissent opposées les unes aux autres: ses fleurs n’ont point de pétales visibles; la plante est mâle & femelle.

On la distingue donc en deux especes, en mâle & en femelle; ou en féconde qui porte des fruits, & en stérile qui n’a que des fleurs; l’une & l’autre viennent de la même graine,

Le chanvre à fruit, cannabis fructifera Offic. cannabis sativa, Park. C.B.P. 320. Hist. oxon. 3. 433. Rau, hist. 1. 158. synop. 53. Boerh. Ind. A. 2. 104. Tournef. inst. 535. Buxb. 53. cannabis mas. J. B. 3. P. 2. 447. Ger. emac. 708. cannabina facunda, Dod. pempt 535.

Le chanvre à fleurs, cannabis florigera, Offic, cannabis erratica, C. B. P. 320. 1. R. H. 535, cannabis famina, J.B. 32. 447. cannab. sterilis, Dod. pemp. 535.

eupatoire

L’eupatoire d’Avicenne, Eupatorium cannabinum L., (Composée), a des feuilles composées, à 3-5 lobes lancéoles-acuminées, dentés, assez semblables à celles du chanvre. (Paul Delaunay)

Gravelroot

Gravelroot
Botanical: Eupatorium purpureum (LINN.)
Family: N.O. Compositae
Synonyms: Trumpet-weed. Gravelweed. Joe-pye Weed. Jopi Weed. Queen-of-the-Meadow Root. Purple Boneset. Eupatorium purpureum, trifoliatum, and maculatum. Eupatorium verticillatum. Eupatorium ternifolium. Hempweed.

euaptoire

L’eupatoire a des feuilles semblables à celles du chanvre.

Eupatoire

Les feuilles de l’eupatoire ressemblent à celles du chanvre. De là le classement prêté ensuite aux «herbires», aux botanistes.

Eupatorium

Eupatorium [modern Latin, adopted from Greek eupatorion, Agrimonia Eupatorium, so called from Mithridates Eupator, king of Pontus, who first used it.]

A genus of the order Compositæ, abundant in America; only one species, E. cannabinum, Hemp Agrimony, being British.

Notes

agrimonia

Agrimony

Agrimony (text)

Eupatorium

Eupatorium (text)

aigremoine

L’aigremoine, Agrimonia eupatoria L. (Rosacée) a des feuilles composées, pinnées, à folioles lancéolées, dentées. (Paul Delaunay)

Agrimony

Agrimony
Botanical: Agrimonia Eupatoria (LINN)

There are several other plants, not actually related botanically to the Common Agrimony, that were given the same name by the older herbalists because of their similar properties. These are the COMMON HEMP AGRIMONY, Eupatorium Cannabinum (Linn.) called by Gerard the Common Dutch Agrimony, and by Salmon, in his English Herbal (1710), Eupatorium Aquaticum mas, the Water Agrimony- also the plant now called the Trifid Bur-Marigold, Bidens tripartita (Linn.), but by older herbalists named the Water Hemp, Bastard Hemp and Bastard Agrimony. The name Bastard Agrimony has also been given to a species of true Agrimony, Agrimonium Agrimonoides, a native of Italy, growing in moist woods and among bushes.

agrimony

agrimony. Forms: agrimonia, egremounde, egrimoigne, egremoyne, egrymoyn(e, egrimonie, -y, egremonie, agremony, agrymonye, agrimonie, agrimony. [adaptation of Latin agrimonia (Cels.), said to be a transformation of Greek a’rgemw´nh (Dioscor.), of unknown etymology. The Middle English forms were adopted from French aigremoine.]

A genus of plants (N.O. Rosaceae), of which one species (A. Eupatoria), to which the English name is usually attached, is common in Britain.

Through confusion as to the application of Eupatoria and Liverwort, old names of Agrimony, the name has been, with or without qualification, extended to other plants.
a Bastard, Dutch, Hemp, or Water Agrimony, Eupatoria cannabina.
b Noble, Three-leaved Agrimony, Hepatica (Lyte).
c Water Agrimony, Bidens (Gerard).
d Wild Agrimony, Potentilla anserina (Lyte).

Notes

Fraxinus

Fraxinus

Fraxinus (text)

fresne

Le Frêne, Fraxinus excelsior L. (Oléacée), a des feuilles composées, à folioles ovales lancéolées, dentées. (Paul Delaunay)

Cannabis

Dioscorides 3.165 Kannabis Emeros. Cannabis [some call it Cannabium, some Schoenostrophon, some Asterion, ye Romans Cannabis] is a plant of much use in this life for ye twistings of very strong ropes, it bears leaves like to the Ash, of a bad scent, long stalks, empty, a round seed, which being eaten of much doth quench geniture, but being juiced when it is green is good for the pains of the ears.

ash

ash. Forms: æsc, asse, aychs, assch, asch, assh, ashe, aish, esche, ach, ash.
[Common Teut.: OE. æsc is cogn. with ONor. askr, Old High German ask,Middle High German asch, mod.G. esche, OTeut. *ask-oz.]

A well-known forest tree, indigenous to Europe, Western Asia, and North Africa, and noted in Teutonic literature from the earliest times; having silver-grey bark, graceful pinnate foliage, a peculiar winged seed or samara called the `ash-key,’ and very tough close-grained wood valuable for implements. The tribe of trees Fraxineæ, N.O. Oleaceæ, including the common ash (Fraxinus excelsior), and the manna or flowering ashes (Ornus Europæa and rotundifolia).

The wood or timber of the ash-tree.

The ashen shaft of a spear; a spear. Obsolete

ash

Materiae enim causa reliquas arbores natura genuit copiosissimamque fraxinum. procera haec ac teres, pinnata et ipsa folio, multumque Homeri praeconio et Achillis hasta nobilitata. materies est ad plurima utilis. ea quidem quae fit in Ida Troadis in tantum cedro similis ut ementes fallat cortice ablato. Graeci duo genera eius fecere: longam enodem, alteram brevem duriorem fuscioremque, laureis foliis. bumeliam vocant in Macedonia amplissimam lentissimamque. alii situ divisere, campestrem enim esse crispam, montanam spissam. folia earum iumentis mortifera, ceteris ruminantium innocua Graeci prodidere; in Italia nec iumentis nocent. contra serpentes vero suco expresso ad potum et imposita ulceri opifera ut nihil aeque reperiuntur; tantaque est vis ut ne matutinas quidem occidentesve umbras, cum sunt longissimae, serpens arboris eius adtingat, adeo ipsam procul fugiat. experti prodimus, si fronde ea circumcludantur ignis et serpens, in ignes potius quam in fraxinum fugere serpentem. mira naturae benignitas prius quam hae prodeant florere fraxinum nec ante conditas folia demittere.

For it is for the sake of their timber thatThe ash: varieties, localities and uses. Nature has created the rest of the trees, and the most productive of them all, the ash. This is a lofty, shapely tree, itself also having feathery foliage, and has been rendered extremely famous by the advertisement given it by Homer [Il. XX. 277 Πηλιάς . . . μελίη] as supplying the spear of Achilles. The wood of the ash is useful for a great many purposes. The kind grown on Ida in the Troad so closely resembles cedar-wood that when the bark has been removed it deceives buyers. The Greeks have distinguished two kinds of ash-tree, a tall one without knots and the other a short tree with harder and darker wood and foliage like that of the bay-tree. In Macedonia there is a very large ash making very flexible timber, which has the Greek name of ‘ox-ash.’ Other people have distinguished the ash-tree by locality, as they say that the ash of the plains has a crinkly grain and the mountain ash is close-grained. Greek writers have stated that the leaves of the ash are poisonous to beasts of burden, though doing no harm to all the other kinds of ruminants; but in Italy they are harmless to beasts of burden also. Indeed, they are found to be serviceable as an exceptionally effective antidote for snake-bites, if the juice is squeezed out to make a potion and the leaves are applied to the wound as a poultice; and they are so potent that a snake will not come in contact with the shadow of the tree even in the morning or at sunset when it is at its longest, so wide a berth does it give to the tree itself. We can state from actual experiment that if a ring of ash-leaves is put round a fire and a snake, the snake will rather escape into the fire than into the ash-leaves. By a marvellous provision of Nature’s kindness the ash flowers before the snakes come out and does not shed its leaves before they have gone into hibernation.

and a little below the top of the stalk

Ozell’s comment on the Urquhart translation: The English whereof seems to me to be, near the Top of the Stalk, but a very little below it.

claire

Clair: Cleere, light, shining, bright.