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Notes

Comment Panurge prend conseil de Epistemon. Chapter 24

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.

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Comment Pantagruel & Panurge delibèrent visiter l’oracle de la Dive Bouteille.

Voy cy bien un aultre poinct, lequel ne consyderez. Est toutesfoys le neu de la matière. Il m’a rendu en main la bouteille. Cela que signifie? Qu’est ce à dire?

Par adventure (respondit Pantagruel) signifie que vostre femme sera yvroigne.

Au rebours, (dist Panurge) car elle estoit vuide. Ie vous iure l’espine de sainct Fiacre en Brye, que nostre Morosophe l’unicque non Lunaticque Triboullet me remet à la Bouteille. Et ie refraischiz de nouveau mon veu premier, & iure Styx & Acheron en vostre praesence, lunettes au bonnet porter, ne porter braguette à mes chausses, que sus mon entreprinse ie n’aye eu le mot de la Dive Bouteille. Ie sçay homme prudent & amy mien, qui sçait le lieu, le pays, & la contrée en laquelle est son temple & oracle. Il nous y conduira sceurement. Allons y ensemble, ie vous supply ne me esconduire. Ie vous seray un Achates, un Damis, & compaignon tout le voyage. Ie vous ay de long temps congneu amateur de peregrinité & desyrant tousiours veoir, & tousiours apprendre. Nous voirons choses admirables, & m’en croyez.

Voluntiers, (respondit Pantagruel) Mais avant nous mettre en ceste longue peregrination plène de hazard, plène de dangers evidens.

Quelz dangiers? dist Panurge interrompant le propous. Les dangiers se refuyent de moy, quelque part que ie soys, sept lieues à la ronde: comme advenent le prince, cesse le magistrat: advenent le Soleil, esvanouissent les tenèbres: & comme les maladies fuyoient à la venue du corps sainct Martin à Quandé.

A propous, dist Pantagruel, avant nous mettre en voye, de certains poincts nous fault expedier. Premierement renvoyons Triboullet à Bloys (Ce que feut faict à l’heure: & luy donna Pantagruel une robbe de drap drop frizé). Secondement nous fault avoir l’advis & congié du Roy mon père. Plus nous est besoing trouver quelque Sibylle pour guyde & truchement.

Panurge respondit que son amy Xenomanes leurs suffiroit, & d’abondant deliberoit passer le pays de Lanternoys, & là prendre quelque docte & utile Lanterne, laquelle leur seroit pour ce voyage, ce que feut la Sibylle à Aeneas descendent es champs Elisiens. Carpalim passant pour la conduicte de Triboullet, entendit ce propous, & s’escria disant, Panurge ho, monsieur le quite, pren Millort Debitis à Calais, car il est goud fallot, & n’oublie debitoribus, ce sont lanternes. Ainsi auras & fallot & lanternes. Mon prognostic est (dist Pantagruel) que par le chemin nous ne engendrerons melancholie. Ià clairement ie l’apperçois. Seulement me desplaist que ne parle bon Lanternoys.

Ie (respondit Panurge) le parleray pour vous tous, ie l’entends comme le maternel, il m’est usité comme le vulgaire.

Brifzmarg d’algotbric nubstzne zos
Isqubfgz prusq, albortz crinqs zacbac.
Misbe dilbarlkz morp nipp stancz bos.
Strombtz Panrge walmap quost grusz bac.

Or devine Epistemon, que c’est?

Ce sont (respondit Epistemon) noms de Diables errans, diables passans, diables rampans.

Tes parolles sont brayes (dist Panurge) bel amy. C’est le courtisan langaige Lanternoys. Par le chemin ie t’en feray un beau petit dictionnaire, lequel ne durera guères plus qu’une paire de souliers neufz. Tu l’auras plus toust aprins, que iour levant sentir. Ce que i’ay dict translaté de Lanternoys en vulgaire, chante ainsi.

Tout malheur estant amoureux,
M’accompaignoit: oncq n’y eu bien.
Gens mariez plus sont heureux,
Panurge l’est, & le sçait bien.

Reste doncques (dist Pantagruel) le vouloir du Roy mon père entendre, & licence de luy avoir.

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Chapter 24. How Panurge taketh Counsel of Epistemon

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

• of Jupiter in Ammon,
• of Apollo in Lebadia, Delphi, Delos, Cyrrha, Patara, Tegyra, Praeneste [13], Lycia, Colophon ; at the Fountain of Castalia, near Antioch [14] in Syria, among the Branchidae [15];
• of Bacchus in Dodona [16],
• of Mercury at Pharae near Patras,
• of Apis in Egypt,
• of Serapis at Canopus,
• of Faunus in Maenalia and at Albunea near Tivoli,
• of Tiresias at Orchomenus,
• of Mopsus [17] in Cilicia,
• of Orpheus in Lesbos,
• of Trophonius in Leucadia [18],

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.

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Chapter 47. How Pantagruel and Panurge determine to visit the Oracle of the Holy Bottle

“HERE is yet another Point, which you do not consider; and yet it is the Knot of the Matter. He gave me back the Bottle into my Hand. What does that signify ? What is the Meaning of that?”

“Perchance,” answered Pantagruel, “it signifies that your Wife will be a Drunkard.”

“Quite the Contrary,” said Panurge; “for the Bottle was empty. I swear to you by the Backbone [1] of St. Fiacre in Brie that our Morosoph, the unique [2], not lunatic, Triboulet, refers me to the Bottle, and I renew afresh my former Vow, and I swear by Styx and Acheron, in your Presence, still to wear Spectacles in my Bonnet, never to wear Cod-piece to my Breeches, until I have had the Word of the Holy Bottle on my Enterprise. I know a discreet Man and a Friend of mine, who knows the Place, the Land and the Country in which is its Temple and Oracle. He will conduct us there safely. Let us go thither together. I entreat you not to put me off. I will be for you an Achates, a Damis [3], and Companion throughout the Voyage. I have long known you to be fond of travelling and desirous of ever seeing and ever learning. We shall see wonderful Things, take my Word for it.”

“Willingly,” replied Pantagruel; “but before entering upon this long Peregrination, full of Hazard, full of evident Dangers — ”

“What Dangers ? ” said Panurge, interrupting. “Dangers fly from me, wherever I may be, for seven Leagues around, just as when the Prince comes the Magistrate surceases, when the Sun breaks forth the Darkness vanishes, and as Diseases fly at the coming of the Body of St. Martin of Quande.” [4]

“By the way,” said Pantagruel, “before setting forward there are certain Points we must despatch.

“First, let us send back Triboulet to Blois.” (This was done at once, and Pantagruel gave him a frieze Coat.)

“Secondly, we must have the Advice and Leave of the King my Father.

“Moreover, we must needs find some Sibyl, for Guide and Inter- preter.”

Panurge replied that his Friend Xenomanes [5] would suffice for them ; besides which, he intended to pass by the Country of a Lantern-land and there to take a learned and useful Lanterness, who for this Voyage would be for them what the Sibyl was to Aeneas in his Descent into the Elysian Fields.

Carpalim, as Escort to Triboulet, was passing by, and heard this Remark, and shouted, “Ho, Panurge, Master Freeman [6], take Milord Debitis [7] (Deputy) at Calais, for he is a good Fellow (goud fallot) ; and do not forget ‘our Debtors,’ that is, Lanterns ; so shalt thou have Torch and Lanterns too.”

” My Prognostication is,” said Pantagruel, ” that we shall not engender Melancholy on the Way; that I clearly see already; only it liketh me not that I cannot talk good Lantern-language.”

“I will speak it for you all,” answered Panurge. ” I understand it as my Mother-tongue. It is as familiar to me as the Vernacular.

Brizmarg d’algotbric nubstzne zos,
Isquebfz prusq alborcz, crinqs zacbac.
Misbe dilbarkz morp nipp stancz bos,
Strombtz, Panurge walmap quost grufz bac. [8]

“There, Epistemon, guess what that is.”

“It is,” answered Epistemon, ” the Names of Devils errant, Devils passant and Devils rampant.”

“Thy Words are true, my fine Friend,” said Panurge. ” It is the Court Language of Lantern-land. On our Journey I will make thee a pretty little Dictionary of it, which will not last thee much longer than
a Pair of new Shoes. For thou wilt have mastered it before thou perceivest the Sun rising next day. What I said, translated from Lanternese into the vulgar Tongue, runs thus :

I was in Love, and Ill-luck ever
Waited on me : Nought went right.
Happier those whom none can sever :
Panurge is, and knows it quite.”

“There remains then,” said Pantagruel, “to learn the Will of my Father and to obtain Leave from him.”

Smith’s notes to chapter 47.

1. This was a relic preserved in the cathedral at Meaux. There is an adjura-tion of this saint in ii. II. It was an innkeeper in the Rue St. Antoine, à l’image de Saint Fiacre, who invented fiacres at the beginning of the 18th century.

2. Bernardo d’ Accolti, at the court of Leo X., obtained the title of l’unique from his talent as improvisatore.

3. Achates, the well-known companion of Aeneas in Virgil. Cf. ii. 9. Damis, the constant companion of Apollonius of Tyana.

4. Cande is a town in Touraine where St. Martin died, and from whence his body was carried to Tours. Cf. Legenda Aurea, c. 166 sub fin.

5. Xenomanes = mad on foreigners. Some commentators identify Xenomanes withthe poet and historian Jean Bouchet, who took for his title Traverseur des votes perilleuses, a title given later on to Xenomanes by Rabelais, iii. 49 and iv. I (Lacroix).

6. Panurge had a horror of being quitte, ‘free of debts.’ Cf. iii. 5

7. Carpalim here makes a profane joke on Matt. vi. 12 : “Et dimitte nobis debita nostra, sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris.” Cf. ii. I, n. 5. Henry Fitz-Alan, Earl of Arundel, was at this time Governor of Calais, Lord-Deputy. (Query: Should debitis in the text be read debita, which is nearer Deputy ?) There is also the play upon fallot, a torch, and the English fellow. There is probably an obscene allusion in lanternes.

8. Brizmarg, etc. This is one of the languages that Panurge speaks in ii.

9. A gibe is clearly intended here against the jargon of the Church-fathers who attended the Lateran Council.

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Le voyage

Le quatrième livre est rempli tout entier par le voyage de Pantagruel et de ses compagnons à la recherche de la Dive Boutille. Quel est ce voyage? M. Abel Fefranc, professeur au Collège de France, croit pouvoir répondre avec certitude: «C’est celui qui a tant occupé les esprits des géographes et des navigateurs depuis le temps de la Renaissance jusqu’au nôtre: le voyage de la côte d’Europe à la côte occidentale d’Asie par le fameux passage du Nord-Ouest, au nord de l’Amérique, tant de fois vainement cherché et dont on n’a constaté définitivement l’impossibilité pratique qu’i y a peu d’années.»

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Sangueny

We find ample proof that every one, in the entourage of François I shared their king’s belief that Cathay and the Kingdom of Saguenay were second to none in riches and marvels, not even to the land of the Montezumas and the Incas then fallen to the hands of Cortes and the Spaniards.

[the Desceliers Mappemonde of 1546] draws from information given by the Stadacona chief Donnacona and other natives captured by Cartier and kept for a few years until their death, in France.

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Le nom de Bacbuc

41

Puisque le mot Baqbuq signifie en hébreu «bouteille», parler de la dive Bouteille Bacbuc revient à dire la dive Bouteille Bouteille, réduplication que l’on pourrait interpréter comme un ornement oriental, un feston linguistique ajouté à la polyglossie du texte rabelaisien. Or ce terme, qui n’existe ni dans le Tiers Livre ni dans Quart Livre de 1548, semble avoir été introduit à dessein pour signifier autre chose que sa simple signification lexicale. Comme onomatopée, il est l’un de ces rares mots «primitifs» qui possèdent une origine, ce qui n’est pas négligeable pour un terme de la langue dite «originelle». Comme nom propre, il donne une vie étrange à une prophétesse d’une pâleur archétypale. Comme mot hébreu, il possède une charge sémantique qui le met en relation avec un courant de la philosophie juive médiévale, celui de Moïse Maïmonide et de Levi ben Gerson.

Entre 1548 et 1552 apparaît donc le nom de Bacbuc dans le Quart Livre, non seulement dans le premier chapitre mais encore dans la Brève Déclaration qui donne l’origine du terme hébreu Bacbuc, la bouteille «ainsi dite du son qu’elle fait quand on la vuide». En ce sens, la liaison avec le chapitre 47 du Tiers Livre est assurée : le fou Triboullet a rendu la bouteille vide à Panurge, et cette vacuité le décide à rechercher «le mot de la Dive Bouteille». De même que la Bouteille est l’emblème arboré à la poupe de la Thalamège, de même, les autres navires portent divers récipients servant à la boisson, hanap, pot à deux anses, bourrabaquin, entonnoir, gobelet, brinde (verre bosselé), tonnelet, etc. (QL, ch.l). Cependant le navire-maître est équipé de l’objet générique «bouteille» qui semble avoir remplacé l’inépuisable tonneau du prologue du Tiers Livre. Contrairement à ce dernier, la bouteille possède des caractéristiques auxquelles Rabelais ou son imitateur accorde une certaine importance : la transparence et la fragilité du verre, la forme renflée resserrée par un goulot et le bruit qui aurait motivé l’onomatopée.

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Le voyage

Il faudra la consultation du fou Triboullet pour qu’enfin Panurge prenne l’initiative d’une consultation, celle de la Bouteille. Le chapitre XLVII, où il formule ce dessein, mérite l’attention. Curieusement la critique l’a peu remarqué, alors qu’on y voit les rôles s’inverser, et Panurge jouer, jusque dans le détail, le rôle jusque-là dévolu à Pantagruel, tandis que ce dernier a maintenant toutes les lenteurs et les timidités dont auparavant son élève faisait montre. On dirait que Pantagruel endosse le vêtement de son élève, tandis que Panurge prend la place du maître. Nous ne savons pas, au terme du Tiers Livre, quelle sera l’issue de la consultation décidée par Panurge, mais peu importe : l’essentiel est que cette décision soit venue de lui. Le chapitre XLVII s’intitule encore : « Comment Pantagruel et Panurge deliberent visiter l’oracle de la Dive Bouteille », et, dans cette expédition, Panurge promet d’être le meilleur des compagnons de voyage, l’Achate de ce nouvel Enée ; mais, quand Gargantua, au chapitre suivant, donne son consentement, il dit à son fils : « Apprestez vous au voyage de Panurge » (p. 443). Panurge a bien désormais la première place. Education réussie : l’élève a appris à se passer du maître.

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