Tanné :m, ée: Tawnie; also, duskie, swart, sallow.
Tawny is a yellowish brown color. The word means “tan-colored,” from Anglo-French tauné “associated with the brownish-yellow of tanned leather,” from Old French tané “to tan hides,” from Medieval Latin tannare from tannum “crushed oak bark,” used in tanning leather, probably from a Celtic source (e.g. Breton tann “oak tree”).
Duret: m. ette: f. Somewhat hard, stiffe, solide; rough, harsh; difficile, inflexible; sturdie, rude, fierce.
Rabelais states that the leaves of Pantagruelion end in points like a Macedonian sarisse, and like a lancet used by surgeons.
Pointe de lance
Depiction of a Macedonian phalanx. From Elmer May et. al., Ancient and Medieval Warfare (1984).
qui clipeo galeaque Macedoniaque sarisa
conspicuus faciemque obversus in agmen utrumque
Then forth rushed one, armed with the spoils of Emathian Halesus whom he had slain, Latreus, of enormous bulk of limb and body. His years were midway between youth and age, but his strength was youthful. Upon his temples his hair was turning grey. Conspicuous for his shield and helmet and Macedonian lance, and facing either host in turn, he clashed his arms and rode round in a circle, insolently pouring out many boasts on the empty air…
[Note continues from Betony:] he [the Author, (Rabelais?)] goes on, and ending in the Points of the Macedonian Larix, not as the Translator has it, in the points of a Macedonian Spear. He took Larice (larch-tree) for Lance belike.
C’est ainsi qu’on lit dans l’édition de 1552. Les deux éditions de Le Duchat, ainsi que celles de M. D. J. ont Larice, mais c’est une faute: ce mot ne vient pas du latin larix, larix, arbre, mais de sarissa, nom de la longue pique des Macédoniens, dans Ovide.
Longue pique des Macédonians. Alias, larice.
Pique utilisée par les célèbres phalanges macédoniennes.
Macedonian [formed on Latin Macedonius = Greek Makedo´nioj]
A Pertaining to Macedonia, an ancient country north of Greece; now, a geographical area in the central Balkans.
1607 Edward Topsell The history of foure-footed beasts and serpents196 At one time is giuen them nine Macedonian Bushels, but… of drinke eyther wine or water thirty Macedonian pintes at a time.
The sarissa or sarisa (Greek: σάρισα) was a long spear or pike about 4–6 metres (13–20 ft) in length. It was introduced by Philip II of Macedon and was used in his Macedonian phalanxes as a replacement for the earlier dory, which was considerably shorter. These longer spears improved the traditional strength of the phalanx by extending the rows of overlapping weapons projecting towards the enemy, and the word remained in use throughout the Byzantine years to sometimes describe the long spears of their own infantry.
Among plants in some way similar to Pantagruelion, referred to throughout Chapter 49.
The leaves of Pantagruelion are incised all around, like those of betony.
Plate 25
Stachys officinalis (L.) Trevis. [as Betonica]
Stachys betonienkraut [as Betonica betonienkraut]
Pliny 25.46.84 The Vettones in Spain discovered the plant called vettonica in Gaul, serratula (“the plant with leaves like a saw”) in Italy, and cestros or psychotrophon by the Greeks, a plant more highly valued than any other. It springs up with an angular stem of two cubits, spreading out from the root leaves rather like those of lapathum, serrated, and with a purple fruiting-head.
[or as the Saxifragum] This is added by the Translator [Urquhart], The author only says, as Betony.
Mauvais comparison ; qu’il sagisse ici de Betonica officinalis L., l’a plus réputée dans l’ancienne thétapeutique, ou de B. alopecuros L. comme le pense M. Sainéan (H.N.R., p. 104) ; bétoine a des feuilles crénelées, tandis que les folioles du chanvre sont dentées. (Paul Delaunay)
Plante aux feuilles crénelées.
Vettones in Hispania eam quae vettonica dicitur in Gallia, in Italia autem serratula, a Graecis cestros aut psychrotrophon, ante cunctas laudatissima. exit anguloso caule cubitorum duum e radice spargens folia fere lapathi, serrata, semine purpureo. folia siccantur in farinam plurimos ad usus. fit vinum ex ea et acetum stomacho et claritati oculorum, tantumque gloriae habet ut domus in qua sata sit tuta existimetur a periculis omnibus.
The Vettones in Spain discovered the plant called vettonica in Gaul, serratula [“The plant with leaves like a saw”] in Italy, and cestros or psychrotrophon by the Greeks, a plant more highly valued than any other. It springs up with an angular stem of two cubits, spreading out from the root leaves rather like those of lapathum, serrated, and with a purple fruiting-head. Its leaves are dried into a powder and used for very many purposes. From it are made a wine and a vinegar, good for the stomach and the eyesight. So great is its fame that the home in which it has been planted is considered to be safe from all danger
betony Forms: (1 betonice), 4-6 betone, 5 betan, batany, 5-6 betany, betayne, betonye, 6 bittonie, byten, bytone, betain(e, 6-7 betonie, 7 bettony, 5- betony. [adopted from French bétoine, adaptation of late Latin *betonia for betonica, written by Pliny (Natural History xxv. 46) vettonica, and said by him to be a Gaulish name for a plant discovered by a Spanish tribe called Vettones.]
A plant (Stachys Betonica) of the Labiate order, having spiked purple flowers and ovate crenate leaves. In former days medicinal and magical virtues were attributed to it.
[C. 1000 Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England. II. 58 Wyl ón ealað..betonican. ]
A. 1275 in Thomas Wright and Richard Paul Wülcker, Anglo-Saxon and Old English Vocabularies (1884). 554 Bethonica, beteine.
C. 1375 ? Barbour St. Baptista 760 In þe prouince of þe sare (= tzar?) … Quhare mene makis drink of spycery-Of betone þare is gret copy.
C. 1440 Promptorium parvulorium sive cleriucorum 34 Betayne, herbe [1499 batany or betony], betonica.
1483 Catholicon Anglicum 30 Betan, harba.
1519 William Horman Vulgaria in Promptorium parvulorum sive clericorum 34 Nesynge is caused with byten (betonica) thrust in the nostril.
1586 Cogan Haven Health lxxiii. (1636) 79 Betaine, though it grow wilde, yet it is set in many Gardens.
1621 Burton Anatomy of Melancholy. iii. iv. ii. vi. (1676) 721 All which [herbs] … expel Devils … The Emperour Augustus … approves of Betony to this purpose.
Crenate – having the edge notched or toothed with rounded teeth, finely scalloped.
Faucille: a Sickle.
Aspreté: Sharpnesse, eagernesse, tartnesse; harshnesse, unpleasantnesse; roughnesse, ruggednesse.
Original French: nõ arbre en racine, tronc, caudice, & rameaux perdurãte.
Modern French: non arbre en racine, tronc, caudice, & rameaux perdurante.
Caudice: The stocke, stumpe, or bodie of a shrub.
Pédoncule. Néologism, du latin caudex, même sens.
Qui dure long-temps.
Among plants in some way similar to Pantagruelion, referred to throughout Chapter 49.
Pantagruelion is called Dendromalache when it reaches the height of trees.
For in the case of some plants it might seem that our definitions overlap; and some under cultivation appear to become different and depart from their essential nature, for instance, mallow [μαλάχη, malachi] when it grows tall and becomes tree-like.
Definitions of the various classes into which plants may be divided.
III. Now since our study becomes more illuminating if we distinguish different kinds, it is well to follow this plan where it is possible. The first and most important classes, those which comprise all or nearly all plants, are tree, shrub, under-shrub, herb.
A tree is a thing which springs from the root with a single stem, having knots and several branches, and it cannot easily be uprooted; for instance, olive fig vine. A shrub is a thing which rises from the root with many branches; for instance, bramble Christ’s thorn. An under-shrub is a thing which rises from the root with many stems as well as many branches; for instance, savory rue, A herb is a thing which comes up from the root with its leaves and has no main stem, and the seed is borne on the stem; for instance, corn and pot-herbs.
These definitions however must be taken and accepted as applying generally and on the whole. For in the case of some plants it might seem that our definitions overlap; and some under cultivation appear to become different and depart from their essential nature, for instance, mallow3 when it grows tall and becomes tree-like. For this comes to pass in no long time, not more than six or seven months, so that in length and thickness the plant becomes as great as a spear, and men accordingly use it as a walking-stick, and after a longer period the result of cultivation is proportionately greater.
quaedam vocabimus ferulacea, ut anetum, malvas; namque tradunt auctores in Arabia [ Mayhoff coll. Theophr. (in Arabia fictum ex mabia = malua). malvas septumo mense arborescere baculorumqueusum praebere. exemplo est arbor malvae in Mauretania Lixi oppidi aestuario, ubi Hesperidum horti fuisse produntur, cc passibus ab oceano iuxta delubrum Herculis antiquius Gaditano, ut ferunt: ipsa altitudinis pedum xx, crassitudinis quam circumplecti nemo possit. in simili genere habebitur et cannabis.
Some plants we shall call of the fennel class, for instance dill and mallow [Mallow has no relation to any other plants in this chapter]; for authorities report that in Arabia mallows grow into trees in seven months, and serve as walking-sticks. There is an instance of a mallow-tree on the estuary of the town of Lixus in Mauretania, the place where the Gardens of the Hesperids are said to have been situated; it grows 200 yards from the ocean, near a shrine of Hercules which is said to be older than the one at Cadiz; the tree itself is 20 ft. high, and so large round that nobody could span it with his arms. Hemp will also be placed in a similar class.
On lit Dendromalachie dans Le Duchat, mais il faut lire Dendromalache, d’après l’edition de 1552, et d’àpres l’étymologie de ce mot, qui vient de δίνδρον, arbre, μαλαχὁζ, délicat, tendre.
The reading must be dendrolachana, as this passage seems to be taken from Theophrastus H. P. i. 3. 4. and dendromalache is not found in Theophrastus.
Dendromalache, mauve qui monte en arbre (Althæa rosea), répondant au δενδρομαλάχη des Géoponiques (xv,5,5) et à l’ἀναδενδρομαλάχη de Galien; mais Théophraste, dont Rabelais invoque l’authorité à ce propos, ne connaît (I,5,1) que μαλάχη δενδρώδηζ , que Fraas (p. 100) identifie avec la Lavatera arborea de Linné. Il est donc probable que Rabelais, citant de mémoire, a confondu le nom de la plante chez Théophraste avec celui qu’elle possède dans les Géoponiques.
Théophrase (Hist pl., l. X, ch 5) décrit une [greek] qui serait, d’après Fraas, notre Lavatera arborea L (Malvacée). C’est la même sans doute que cite Pline : « Tradunt auctores in Arabia malvas septime mense arborescere, baculorumque usum praebere extemplo ». (XIX, 22) — Mais Rabelais l’a sans doube confondue avec la [greek] des Géoponiques (XV, 5, 5), [greek] de Galien (Meth. med., l XIV, ch. 5) qui serait, d’apres Sainéan (H.N.R., p. 104) l’Althea rosea Cav. (Paul Delaunay)
Théophraste, Histoire des plantes, XV, v, Rabelais confondant vraisemblablement la plante décrite par Théophraste avec la δενδρομαλάχη des Géoponiques (XV, v, 5) de Galien (voir Tiers livre, ed. Lefranc, n. 19, p. 340). L’exemplaire des livres VI-IX, Theophrasti de Suffruticibus, herbisque
et frugibus libri quattuor, Theodora gaza interprete, conservé à la Réserve de la Bibliotheque nationale, offre une note autographe de Rabelais en titre.
La mauve en arbre, désignée d’un nom tout proche par Théophraste.
dendro-, before a vowel dendr-, combining form of Greek dendron tree
dendranatomy, the anatomy of trees (obs.).
dendranthropology, study based on the theory that man had sprung from trees
dendroclastic., breaking or destroying trees, a destroyer of trees.
dendrography, description of trees (Syd. Soc. Lex.).
dendroheliophallic , said of a symbolic figure combining a tree, a sun, and a phallus.
dendrolatry, worship of trees.
dendrolite, a petrified or fossil tree or part of a tree.
dendrometer, an instrument for measuring trees.
dendrophil, a lover of trees.
dendrophilous, tree-loving; in In botany growing on or twining round trees.
[1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Dendrachates (Greek), a kind of Agate-stone, the Veins and Spots of which resemble the Figures of Trees and Shrubs. ]
1697 Philosophical Transactions. XIX. 558 Dendranatome may, tho’ more remotely, advance even the Practice of Physick, by the Discovery of the Oeconomy of Plants.
1753 Ephriam Chambers Cyclopædia; or, an universal dictionary of arts and sciences, Supplement, Dendranatomy, a term used by Malpighi and others to express the dissection of the ligneous parts of trees and shrubs, in order to the examining their structure and uses.
1843 Southey Doctor ccxv. VII. 168 He formed, therefore, no system of dendranthropology.
1891 T. J. Jeakes in N. & Q. 7th Ser. XII. 395 The dendroheliophallic `Tree of Life’, probably.
1891 translation ofDe La Saussaye’s Man. Scotch Religion xii. 89 The impressions which have given rise to dendrolatry.
La Sabine, en italien Sabina, est une région historique de l’Italie centrale qui tire son nom de l’ancien peuple des Sabins. Elle comprend les monts Sabins. La Sabine antique est de nos jours divisée en trois régions. Elle couvre, dans le Latium, l’entièreté de la province de Rieti et une portion de la province de Rome.
Ecce Sabinorum prisco de sanguine magnum
gmen agens Clausus magnique ipse agminis instar,
Claudia nunc a quo diffunditur et tribus et gens
per Latium, postquam in partem data Roma Sabinis.
una ingens Amiterna cohors priscique Quirites,
Ereti manus omnis oliviferaeque Mutuscae;
qui Nomentum urbem, qui Rosea rura Velini,
qui Tetricae horrentis rupes montemque Severum
Casperiamque colunt Forulosque et flumen Himellae
qui Tiberim Fabarimque bibunt, quos frigida misit
Nursia, et Ortinae classes populique Latini…
See! Clausus [28] of the ancient Sabine blood, leading a mighty host, and equal to a mighty host himself; from whom now through Latium spreads the Claudian tribe and clan, since Rome was shared with the Sabines. With him came Amiternum’s vast cohort, and the ancient Quirites, the whole band of Eretum and olive-bearing Mutusca; those who dwell in Nomentum’s city and the Rosean country by Velinus, on Tetrica’s rugged crags and Mount Severus, in Casperia and Foruli, and by Himella’s stream; those who drink of Tiber and Fabaris, those whom cold Nursia sent, the Ortine squadrons, the Latin peoples….
28. Cf. Livy 2.16, where we learn that the Claudian tribe was founded by Attus Clausus, who seceded from the Sabines in 506 b.c. and was received as a citizen in Rome. Virgil, however, re fers the founding of the Claudian gensto the earlier day when Romulus formed a treaty with the Sabines under Titus Tatius.
quod ad proceritatem quidem attinet, Rosea agri Sabini arborum altitudinem aequat.
As regards height, the hemp of Rosea in the Sabine territory grows as tall as a fruit-tree.
Reliqua sunt ferulacei generis, ceu feniculum anguibus, ut diximus, gratissimum, ad condienda plurima cum inaruit utile, eique perquam similis thapsia, de qua diximus inter externos frutices, deinde utilissima funibus cannabis. seritur a favonio; quo densior est eo tenerior. semen eius, cum est maturum, ab aequinoctio autumni destringitur et sole aut vento aut fumo siccatur. ipsa cannabis vellitur post vindemiam ac lucubrationibus decorticata purgatur. optima Alabandica, plagarum praecipue usibus. tria eius ibi genera: inprobatur cortici proximum aut medullae, laudatissima est e medio quae mesa vocatur. secunda Mylasea. quod ad proceritatem quidem attinet, Rosea agri Sabini arborum altitudinem aequat. ferulae duo genera in peregrinis fruticibus diximus. semen eius in Italia cibus est; conditur quippe duratque in urceis vel anni spatio. duo ex ea olera, caules et racemi. corymbian hanc vocant corymbosque quos condunt.
There remain the garden plants of the fennel-giant class, for instance fennel, which snakes are very fond of, as we have said, and which when dried is useful for seasoning a great many dishes, and thapsia, which closely resembles it, of which we have spoken among foreign bushes, and then hemp, which is exceedingly useful for ropes. Hemp is sown when the spring west wind sets in; the closer it grows the thinner its stalks are. Its seed when ripe is stripped off after the autumn equinox and dried in the sun or wind or by the smoke of a fire. The hemp plant itself is plucked after the vintage, and peeling and cleaning it is a task done by candle light. The best is that of Arab-Hissar, which is specially used for making hunting-nets. Three classes of hemp are produced at that place: that nearest to the bark or the pith is considered of inferior value, while that from the middle, the Greek name for which is ‘middles’, is most highly esteemed. The second best hemp comes from Mylasa. As regards height, the hemp of Rosea in the Sabine territory grows as tall as a fruit-tree. The two kinds of fennel-giant have been mentioned above among exotic shrubs. In Italy its seed is an article of diet; in fact it is stored in pots and lasts for as much as a year. Two different parts of it are used as vegetables, the stalks and the branches. This fennel is called in Greek clump-fennel, and the parts that are stored, clumps.
p. 254 Sabinie] Voiez Pline, l. 19. chap. 9
Sabinia. See Pliny l. 9 c. 9.
Cf. Pliny xix 9: “Quod ad proceritatem quidem attinet Rosea agri Sabini arborum altitudinem aequat.”
D’apres Pline, XIX, 56.
Sabine. [adaptation of Latin Sabinus]
Of or pertaining to the Sabines:
1600 Philemon Holland, translator tr. Livy’s Romane Hist. i. 8 And the youth of Rome upon a token and watch-word given, fell on every side to carrie away the Sabine maidens.
1606 Jonson Hymenaei sig. Cv, The Speare, which (in the Sabine tongue) was called Curis.
1697 Dryden Æneid viii. 842 Sabine dames.
1756 C. Smart tr. Horace, Satires i. ix. (1826) II. 75 An old Sabine sorceress.
One of a race of ancient Italy who inhabited the central region of the Apennines.
1387 John de Trevisa Higden (Rolls) III. 61 Tacius kyng of Sabyns was i-slawe by assent of Romulus.
1533 Bellenden Livy i. iv. (S.T.S.) I. 29 Ane huge nowmer of Sabinis with þare wyiffis, barnis, & servandis.
1601 Philemon Holland, translator Pliny’s History of the world, commonly called the Natural historie I. 65 The Sabines… dwell hard by the Veline lakes.
1783 W. Gordon tr. Livy’s Rom. Hist. (1823) I. xxxviii. 70 The Sabines fled to the Mountains.
Transferred sense in allusion to the proverb Sabini quod volunt somniant, `the Sabines dream what they will’ (Festus).
1610 Philomen Holland, translator Camden’s Brit. 542 Grimsby, which our Sabins, or conceited persons dreaming what they list, and following their owne fansies, will have to be so called of one Grime a merchant.
Préneste (ou Præneste) est une ancienne ville du Latium à 37 km à l’est de Rome. Actuellement nommée Palestrina, la ville était située sur une hauteur stratégique des Apennins.
Lots and the Chaldean astrologers remain to be discussed before we come to prophets and to dreams. And pray what is the need, do you think, to talk about the casting of lots? It is much like playing at morra, dice, or knuckle-bones, in which recklessness and luck prevail rather than reflection and judgement. The whole scheme of divination by lots was fraudulently contrived from mercenary motives, or as a means of encouraging superstition and error. But let us follow the method used in the discussion of soothsaying and consider the traditional origin of the most famous lots. According to the annals of Praeneste Numerius Suffustius, who was a distinguished man of noble birth, was admonished by dreams, often repeated, and finally even by threats, to split open a flint rock which was lying in a designated place. Frightened by the visions and disregarding the jeers of his fellow-townsmen he set about doing as he had been directed. And so when he had broken open the stone, the lots sprang forth carved on oak, in ancient characters. The site where the stone was found is religiously guarded to this day. It is hard by the statue of the infant Jupiter, who is represented as sitting with Juno in the lap of Fortune and reaching for her breast, and it is held in the highest reverence by mothers.
There is a tradition that, concurrently with the finding of the lots and in the spot where the temple of Fortune now stands, honey flowed from an olivetree. Now the soothsayers, who had declared that those lots would enjoy an unrivalled reputation, gave orders that a chest should be made from the tree and the lots placed in the chest. At the present time the lots are taken from their receptacle if Fortune directs [If the statue of the goddess gives a sign by a nod or otherwise]. What reliance, pray, can you put in these lots, which at Fortune’s nod are shuffled and drawn by the hand of a child? And how did they ever get in that rock? Who cut down the oaktree? and who fashioned and carved the lots? Oh! but somebody says, ‘God can bring anything to pass.’ If so, then I wish he had made the Stoics wise, so that they would not be so pitiably and distressingly superstitious and so prone to believe everything they hear! This sort of divining, however, has now been discarded by general usage. The beauty and age of the temple still preserve the name of the lots of Praeneste—that is, among the common people, for no magistrate and no man of any reputation ever consults them; but in all other places lots have gone entirely out of use. And this explains the remark which, according to Clitomachus, Carneades used to make that he had at no other place seen Fortune more fortunate than at Praeneste [i.e. the reputation of the lots at Praeneste lasted longer than elsewhere]. Then let us dismiss this branch of divination.
Laissans la Villaumère, & retournans vers Pantagruel, par le chemin Panurge s’adressa à Epistemon, & luy dist.
Compère mon antique amy, vous voyez la perplexité de mon esprit. Vous sçavez tant de bons remèdes. Me sçauriez vous secourir?
Epistemon print le propous, & remonstroit Panurge comment la voix publicque estoit toute consommée en mocqueries de son desguisement: & luy conseilloit prendre quelque peu de Ellebore, affin de purger cestuy humeur en luy peccant, & reprendre ses accoustremens ordinaires.
Ie suys (dist Panurge) Epistemon mon compère, en phantasie de me marier. Mais ie crains estre coqu & infortuné en mon mariage. Pourtant ay ie faict veu à sainct François la ieune, lequel est au Plessis lez Tours reclamé de toutes femmes en grande devotion (car il est premier fondateur des bons hommes, lesquelz elles appetent naturellement) porter lunettes au bonnet, ne porter braguette en chausses, que sus ceste mienne perplexité d’esprit ie n’aye eu resolution aperte.
C’est (dist Epistemon) vrayment un beau & ioyeulx veu. Ie me esbahys de vous, que ne retournez à vous mesmes, & que ne revocquez vos sens de ce farouche esguarement en leur tranquillité naturelle. Vous entendent parler, me faictez souvenir du veu des Argives à la large perrucque, les quelz ayant perdu la bataille contre les Lacedaemoniens en la controverse de Tyrée, feirent veu: cheveux en teste ne porter, iusques à ce qu’ils eussent recouvert leur honneur & leur terre: du veu aussi du plaisant Hespaignol Michel Doris, qui porta le trançon de grève en sa iambe. Et ne sçay lequel des deux seroit plus digne & meritant porter chapperon verd & iausne à aureilles de lièvre, ou icelluy glorieux champion, ou Enguerrant qui en faict le tant long, curieux, & fascheux compte, oubliant l’art & manière d’escrire histoires, baillée par le philosophe Samosatoys. Car lisant icelluy long narré, l’on pesne que doibve estre commencement, & occasion de quelque forte guerre, ou insigne mutation des Royaulmes: mais en fin de compte on se mocque & du benoist champion, & de l’Angloys qui le deffia, & de Enguerrant leur tabellion: plus baveux qu’un pot à moustarde. La mocquerie est telle que de la montaigne d’Hiorace, laquelle crioyt & lamentoyt enormement, comme femme en travail d’enfant. A son cris & lamentation accourut tout le voisinaige en expectation de veoir quelque admirable & monstrueux enfantement, mais en fin ne nasquit d’elle qu’une petite souriz.
Non pourtant (dist Panurge) ie m’en soubrys. Se mocque qui clocque. Ainsi seray comme porte mon veu. Or long temps a que avons ensemble vous & moy, foy & amitié iurée, par Iuppiter Philios, dictez m’en vostre advis. Me doibz ie marier, ou non?
Certes (respondit Epistemon) le cas est hazardeux, ie me sens par trop insuffisant à la resolution. Et si iamais feut vray en l’art de medicine le dict du vieil Hippocrates de Lango, IUGEMENT DIFFICILE, il est cestuy endroict verissime. I’ay bien en imagination quelques discours moienans les quelz nous aurions determination sus vostre perplexité. Mais ilz ne me satisfont poinct apertement. Aulcuns Platonicques disent que qui peut veoir son Genius, peut entendre ses destinées. Ie ne comprens pas bien leur discipline, & ne suys d’advis que y adhaerez. Il y a de l’abus beaucoup. I’en ay veu l’expereince en un gentil home studieux & curieux on pays d’Estangourre. C’est le poinct premier. Un aultre y a. Si encores regnoient les oracles de Iuppiter en Mon: de Apollo en Lebadie, Delphes, Delos, Cyrrhe, Patare, Tegyres, Preneste, Lycie, Colophon: en la fontaine Castallie près Antioche en Syrie: entre les Branchides: de Bacchus, en Dodone: de Mercure, en Phares près Tatras: de Apis, en Aegypte: de Serapis, en Canobe: de Faunus, en Maenalie & en Albunée près Tivoli: de Tyresias, en Orchomène: de Mopsus, en Cilicie: de Orpheus, en Lesbos: de Trophonius, en Leucadie. Ie seroys d’advis (paradventure non seroys) y aller & entendre quel seroit leur iugement sus vostre entreprinse. Mais vous sçavez que tous sont devenuz plus mutz que poissons, depuys la venue de celluy Roy servateur, on quel ont prins fin tous oracles & toutes propheties: comme advenente la lumière du clair Soleil disparent tous Lutins, Lamies, Lemures, Guaroux, Farfadetz, & Tenebrions. Ores toutesfoys qu’encores feussent en règne, ne conseilleroys ie facillement adiouster foy à leurs responses. Trop de gens y ont esté trompez. D’adventaige mist sus à Lollie la belle, avoir interrogué l’oracle de Apollo Clarius pour entendre si mariée elle seroit avecques Claudius l’empereur. Pour ceste cause feut premierement banie, & depuys à mort ignominieusement mise.
Mais (dist Panurge) faisons mieulx. Les isles Ogygies ne sont loing du port Sammalo, faisons y un voyage après qu’aurons parlé à nostre Roy. En l’une des quatre, laquelle plus à son aspect vers Soleil couchant, on dict, ie l’ay leu en bons & antiques autheurs, habiter plusieurs divinateurs, vaticinateurs, & prophètes: y estre Saturne lié de belles chaines d’or, dedans une roche d’or, alimenté de Ambrosie & Nectar divin, les quelz iournellement luy sont des cieulx transmis en abondance par ne sçay quelle espèce d’oizeaulx (peut estre que sont les mesmes Corbeaulx, qui alimentoient es desers sainct Paul premier hermite) & apertement predire à un chascun qui veult entendre son sort, sa destinées, & ce que luy doibt advenir. Car les Parces rien ne sillent, Iuppiter rien ne propense & rien ne delibère, que le bon père en dormant ne congnoisse. Ce nous seroit grande abbreviation de labeur, si nous le oyons un peu sus ceste mienne perplexité.
C’est (respondit Epistemon) abus trop evident, & fable trop fabuleuse. Ie ne iray pas.
As they were leaving Villaumere and returning towards Pantagruel, on the way Panurge addressed himself to Epistemon, and said to him: “Gossip, my ancient Friend, you see the Perplexity of my Mind. And you know such a Number of good Remedies. Could you not succour me?”
Epistemon took up the Subject, and represented to Panurge how the common Talk was entirely taken up with Scoffings at his Disguise; wherefore he advised him to take a little Hellebore, in order to purge him of this peccant Humour, and to resume his ordinary Apparel.
“My dear Gossip Epistemon,” quoth Panurge, “I am in a Fancy to marry me, but I am afraid of being a Cuckold and unfortunate in my Marriage.
“Wherefore I have made a Vow to Saint Francis the Younger [1], who at Plessis-lez-Tours is in much Request and Devotion of all Women (for he is the first Founder of the Fraternity of Good Men, whom they naturally long for), to wear Spectacles in my Cap and to wear no Cod-piece on my Breeches, till I have a clear Settlement in the Matter of this my Perplexity of Mind.”
“’Tis indeed,” said Epistemon, “a rare merry Vow. I am astonished that you do not return to yourself and recall your Senses from this wild Straying abroad to their natural Tranquillity. “When I hear you talk thus, you remind me of the Vow of the Argives of the long Wig [2], who having lost the Battle against the Lacedaemonians in the Quarrel about Thyrea, made a Vow not to wear Hair on their Head till they had recovered their Honour and their Land; also of the Vow of the pleasant Spaniard Michael Doris, who ever carried the Fragment of Thigh-armour on his Leg.
” And I do not know whether of the two would be more worthy, and deserving to wear a green and yellow [3] Cap and Bells with Hare’s Ears, the aforesaid vainglorious Champion, or Enguerrant [4], who makes concerning it so long, painful and tiresome an Account, quite forgetting the proper Art and Manner of writing History, which is delivered by the Philosopher of Samosata [5] ; for in reading this long Narrative, one thinks it ought to be the Beginning and Occasion of some formidable War, or notable Change in Kingdoms. But at the End of the Story one only scoffs at the silly Champion, and the Englishman who defied him, as also at the Scribbler Enguerrant, who is a greater Driveller than a Mustard-pot.
“The Jest and Scorn thereof is like that of the Mountain in Horace [6], which cried out and lamented enormously, as a Woman in Travail of Child-birth. At its Cries and Lamentation the whole Neighbourhood ran together, in expectation to see some marvellous and monstrous Birth, but at last there was born of it nought but a little Mouse.”
“For all your mousing,” said Panurge, “I do not smile[7] at it ‘Tis the Lame makes game [8]. I shall do as my Vow impels me. Now it is a long Time since you and I together did swear Faith and Friendship by Jupiter Philios. Tell me, then, your Opinion thereon ; ought I to marry or not ? ”
“Verily,” replied Epistemon, “the Case is hazardous; I feel myself far too insufficient to resolve it; and if ever in the Art of Medicine the dictum of the old Hippocrates [9] of Lango [10], that ‘Judgment is difficult,’ was true, it is certainly most true in this Case.
“I have indeed in my Mind some Discourses, by means of which we could get a Determination on your Perplexity ; but they do not satisfy me clearly.
“Some Platonists declare that the Man who can see his Genius can understand his Destinies [11]. I do not understand their Doctrine, and am not of Opinion that you should give your Adhesion to them; there is much Error in it. I have seen it tried in the case of a studious and curious Gentleman in the Country of Estangourre [12]. That is Point the first.
” There is also another Point. If there were still any Authority in the Oracles
I should be of Opinion — perhaps I should not — that you should go thither and hear what would be their Judgment on your present Enterprise.
“But you know that they have all become more [19] dumb than Fishes since the Coming of that Saviour King, what time all Oracles and all Prophecies made an End; as when, on the Approach of the Light of the radiant Sun, all Spectres, Lamiae, Spirits, Ware-wolves, Hobgoblins and Dung-beetles disappear. Moreover, even though they were still in vogue, I should not counsel you to put Faith in their Responses too readily. Too many Folks have already been deceived thereby.
“Besides, I remember to have read that [20] Agrippina put upon the fair Lollia the Charge of having interrogated the Oracle of Apollo Clarius, to learn if she should ever be married to the Emperor Claudius; and for this Reason she was first banished, and afterwards ignominiously put to Death.”
“But,” said Panurge, “let us do better. The Ogygian [21] Islands are not far from the Harbour of St. Malo. Let us make a Voyage thither after we have spoken to our King on the Subject.
“In one of the four which hath its Aspect more turned towards the Sunset, it is reported — I have read it in good and ancient Authors — that there dwell several Soothsayers, Vaticinators and Prophets; that Saturn [22] is there bound with fine Chains of Gold, within a Cave of a golden Rock, nourished with divine Ambrosia and Nectar, which are daily transmitted in abundance to him from the Heavens by I know not what kind of Birds — it may be, they are the same Ravens which fed St Paul [23], the first Hermit, in the Desert — and that he clearly foretells to every one who wishes to hear, his Lot, his Destiny and that which must happen to him ; for the Fates spin nothing, Jupiter projects nothing, deliberates nothing, which the good Father knoweth not in his Sleep. It would be a great Abbreviation of Labour for us, if we should hearken a little to him on this Perplexity of mine.”
“That is,” replied Epistemon, “an Imposture too evident, and a Fable too fabulous. I will not go.”
Smith’s notes
1. St. Francis de Paule, to distinguish him from St. Francis of Assisi. He had been surnamed le bon homme by Louis XI., and consequently the Minims founded by him, had obtained this name. Cf. iii. 22, n.3. Their first cloister was founded at Plessis-les-Tours, of which Scott speaks often in Quentin Durward. Duchat points out that lepers also were called les bons hommes in France, as being lecherous.
2. Herodotus i. 82
3. The colours, etc., of the fool’s dress in the middle ages.
4. Enguerrant de Monstrelet, governor of Cambray, continuer of Froissart’s history from 1400 to 1467, in the second Book of his Chronicles tells the Story in many pages how the Spaniard Michael d’Oris and an Englishman named Prendergast defied one another, and went backwards and forwards many times, and it all came to nothing.
5. Lucian, de histor. conscrib.
6. Parturiunt monies, nascetur ridiculus mus. Hor. A.P. 139.
7. The pun of souris (mouse) and soubris (smile) occurs in the following extract :
Sire Lyon (dit le fils de souriz)
de ton propos certes je me soubriz.
— Cl. Marot, Epistre à son ami Lyon (xi. 1. 55).
8. Loripedem rectus derideat, Aethiopem albus.
—Juv. ii. 23.
9. In this sentence of Epistemon there are two quotations from the first aphorism of Hippocrates.
10. Lango is the modern name of Cos, the birthplace of Hippocrates.
11. In answer to Porphyrius, lamblichus writes: [greek text] (de Myst. ix. 3) Cf. Serv. ad Aen. vi. 743.
12. Estrangourre, or Estangor, as it occurs in the Romance of Lancelot du Lac, is East Anglia, one of the divisions of the Saxon Heptarchy.
13. Praeneste. It is to Fortuna and not to Apollo that the temple here is dedicated, and it was especially the sortes Praenestinae that were celebrated as prophetic. Cf. Cic. de Div. ii. 41, §§ 86, 87.
14. Antioch. The reference is to a celebrated grove and sanctuary of Apollo called Daphne, near Antioch (Josephus, B. J. i. 12 § 5; and others.
15. Branchidae. The temple of Apollo at Didymi, at Branchidae in the Milesian territory, is mentioned by Herodotus (i. 46, 92, etc.); Strabo, p. 634; Pausanias, vii. 2, § 5; and others.
16. There was no special oracle of Bacchus at Dodona.
17. Mopsus, son of Manto, daughter of Tiresias.
18. Leucadia should be Lebadeia in Boeotia. Trophonius was the architect of the temple of Apollo at Delphi, and after his death was worshipped as a hero. He had a celebrated oracle in a cave at Lebadeia (v . 36). Cf. Herod., i. 46; Pausanias, ix. 37-39 ; Aristoph. Nub. 508.
19. Cf. Plutarch de orac. def. and v. 47, n. 2.
20. Tac. Ann. xii. 22.
21. The island of Ogygia is Calypso’s island in the Odyssey, and according to Homer (Od. v. 280) is eighteen days’ voyage from the island of the Phaeacians in the far north-west. According to Plutarch (de facie in orbe Lunae, c. 26 941 A), it is five days’ sail from Great Britain to the west, and there are three other islands equally distant from it and each other, in one of which Saturn is chained. Motteux conjectures with probability that the Channel Islands are intended by Rabelais. The legend is employed by Keats at the beginning of his Hyperion.
22. Plut. de fac. in orb. Lun. c. 26, 942 A.
23. The allusion is not to the apostle but to the hermit St. Paul, who is said to have lived in the time of the Emperor Decius, and to have been fed by ravens. Cf. Legenda Aurea, cap. xv.
Præneste occupied a cool, lofty spur of the Apennines 37 km ESE of Rome. It first appears in history in the 5th cent. BC as a powerful Latin city, whose strategic site facing the Alban Hills was inevitably attacked by the neighbouring Aequi. In the 4th cent. it often fought Rome and, after participating in the Latin War, was deprived of territory and became a civits foederta. After 90 Præneste became a Roman municipium devoted to Marius’ cause, which Sulla sacked (82), transferred to lower ground, and colonized with veterans. It remained a colony in imperial times, famed chiefly as a fashionable villa resort and seat of an ancient oracle, which Roman emperors, foreign potentates, and others consulted in the huge temple of Fortuna Primigenia, perhaps the largest in Italy. Its impressive remains probably belong to the second half of the 2nd cent. BC. Praeneste is known also for its spectacular Nile mosaic, and Verrius Flaccus’ calenda
Prænestine: Of or pertaining to the ancient city of Præneste or its inhabitants.
1880 tr. Woltmann & Woermann’s History of Painting I. iv. 88 The engraved metal caskets of the kind commonly known as Prænestine cistæ, because they have been found for the most part at Præneste, the modern Palestrina.
1885 Encyclopædia Britannica XIX. 654/2 Præneste was chiefly famed for its great temple of Fortune and for its oracle, in connexion with the temple, known as the `Prænestine lots’ (sortes Prænestinæ).
1939 L. H. Gray Foundations of Language 332 The oldest record of Italic is a Prænestine fibula of the seventh century B.C., Manios med fhefhaked Numasioi `Manius me fecit Numerio’.
1970 Oxford Classical Dictionary. (ed. 2) 873/1 Præneste has yielded the earliest specimen of Latin, whose peculiarities confirm Festus’ statement that Praenestine Latin was abnormal.
A native or inhabitant of Præneste.
1902 Encyclopædia Britannica XXXIII. 897/2 The Romans were inclined to sneer at the pronunciation and idiom of the Prænestines.
1949 Oxf. Classical Dict. 726/1 Prænestines loyally resisted Pyrrhus and Hannibal, and actually preferred their own status to that of Roman citizens.
Préneste (ou Præneste) est une ancienne ville du Latium à 37 km à l’est de Rome. Actuellement nommée Palestrina, la ville était située sur une hauteur stratégique des Apennins.
L’origine de Préneste était attribuée par les anciens à Ulysse ou à d’autres personnages légendaires. La ville était probablement sous l’hégémonie d’Albe-la-Longue, lorsque cette cité était à la tête de la Ligue latine. Selon Tite-Live, Préneste se retira de la ligue en -499, et forma une alliance avec Rome. Lorsque Rome fut affaiblie par les Gaulois de Brennos (-390), Préneste changea d’allégeance et combattit contre Rome durant les longues luttes qui culminèrent durant les guerres latines. De -373 à -370, elle fut en guerre continuelle contre Rome et ses alliés, et finalement vaincue par Cincinnatus.
Après la victoire des Romains en -354 et en -338, Préneste fut punie par la perte de portions de son territoire, et devint une ville alliée de Rome. Comme telle, elle fournit des contingents à l’armée romaine, et les exilés romains avaient le droit de vivre à Préneste, qui prospéra. La croissance de Préneste se traduisit en profusion et en beauté.
Sous l’Empire, la fraîcheur du site de Préneste en fit un des lieux de villégiature estivale favoris des riches Romains, dont les villas s’étendirent aux alentours, bien qu’ils ridiculisassent le langage et les manières rudes des natifs de la ville.
