GARGANTUA AND PANTAGRUEL (La Vie tree horrifigue du grand Gargantua and Pantagruel, roi des Dipsodes) is the literary monument of Francois Rabelais. The signifi cance of the work for its time is likely to be misapprehended by readers grown more squeamish, even in speaking, than he was in writing or printing, of matters concerning the processes of engendure, gestation, nutrition; digestion and excretion, while they have become heedless, through long and wonted use, of those liberties in education and in the saner social, political and intellectual outlook for which our age is indebted most to Rabelais and to Eras mus among the humanists of the 16th century. In the coarseness with which he expresses a lusty animalism, Rabelais had rivals but hardly an equal. Yet in the whole of his work there. is not a prurient phrase. He likens (Bk. 1, Pro. Logue) his work to a "silene," ie., to a little fancy box whose grotesquely ornamented lid hid some prized thing, a jewel perhaps, a spice, some healing salve. What is hidden is worth more than what appears. Let his readers "break the bone and suck out the marrow" The dates and even the order of publica tion of the five books that make up the current 'Gargantua and Pantagruel> are uncertain. Book 2, the first of PantagrueP was certainly in print in 1533, as was the (Pantagrueline Prognostication,' a parody of the current popu lar almanacs. Book 1, 'Gargantua,' is known first in an edition of 1535. A rather common place chap-book, 'The Grand and inestimable chronicles of the great and enormous giant Gargantua' is at least as early as 1532. Giant Gargantua was already a familiar figure in the folklore of France. Whether these Chronicles) are by Rabelais, or whether perhaps some other earlier by him has left no trace, is uncertain. A new edition of Books 1 and 2 appeared in 1542, the very important Book 3 in 1546. A part of Book 4 appeared in 1547, while Rabelais was in exile, the whole of it after his restoration to royal favor in 1552. Meantime a version of the much disputed Book 5 had appeared in 1549. The current version of this Book was first printed in 1562 and not incor porated with the other four till 1567. This latter version is at least sophisticated; possibly neither is genuine.
The work changed in character as it pro gressed. It began as a narrative of Brob dingnagian folk-lore, with sallies of ebullient animal spirits and passages of shrewd obser vation and deep wisdom regarding the errors and shortcomings of the time in education and in political, social and religious life. As the
work proceeds these latter elements become more and more prominent, and with the develop ment of the character of Panurge in Book 3, it grows clearer why Coleridge should speak of "the moral elevation of Rabelais' work" and rank him with the creative minds of the world, Shakespeare, Dante, Cervantes.' Humor is the book's shell. Rabelais, with Erasmus and Hut ten, killed obscurantism with laughter. But wisdom is its kernel. His insight into and sympathy with human nature, joined to his classical scholarship, shook a drowsing Europe to awakened intellectual life. Especially to be noted are the passages on education (Bk. 1; 14, 15, 21-24) ; those that tell of the words and deeds of the redoubtable Friar John of the Fun nels, better, "of the Choppers° (Bk. 1; 27, 39 45) and his abbey of Theleme (Bk. 1; 52-57); Gargantua's letter of counsel to Pantagruel (Bk. 2; 8) ; the latter's encounter with the Li mousin pedant (Bk. 2; 6) ; and with Panurge (Bk. 2; 9) ; Panurge's praise of debt (Bk. 3; 3-5) and his famous search for light on the question of his marriage, which, with many digressions, is the binding thread for the rest of the work. The key-note is its militant faith in human nature and liberty, informed by free thinking and free teaching, joined to a Greek aversion to ascetic restraint. Never was there a more robust believer that life for its own sake could be made worth living.
Among many annotated editions of Rabe lais may be noted those by Marty-Laveaux (1870-81), by Montaiglon and Lacour (1868 72),' by Moland (1881), by Clouzot (1912) and by Lefranc and others (unfinished, 1912-). The best-known translation was begun by Sir Thomas Urquhart and completed by Peter Le Motteux (1653-94). It has been often re printed, notably with an introduction by Whib ley (Tudor translations, 3 vols., 1900). W. F. Smith's annotated version(2 vols., 1893) is more accurate. Consult Tilley, 'Rabelais' (1907); Paillard, (L'CEuvre de Rabelais' (1910); Stapfer, 'Rabelais' (1889); Gebhard, 'Rabelais, le renaissance et le reform& (1877), and 'Revue des Etudes rabelaisiennes' (1903 12) continued as 'Revue des etudes du siezieme siecle> (1913- ).