Notes

Lilium

ivy

111 If you wish to determine whether wine has been watered or not: Make a vessel of ivy wood and put in it some of the wine you think has water in it. If it contains water, the wine will soak through and the water will remain, for a vessel of ivy wood will not hold wine.

ivy to walls

Hedera iam dicitur in Asia nasci. circiter urbis Romae annum ccccxxxx negaverat Theophrastus, nec in India nisi in monte Mero, quin et Harpalum omni modo laborasse ut sereret eam in Medis frustra, Alexandrum vero ob raritatem ita coronato exercitu victorem ex India redisse exemplo Liberi patris; cuius dei et nunc adornat thyrsos galeasque etiam ac scuta in Thraciae populis sollemnibus sacris, inimica arboribus satisque omnibus, sepulchra, muros rumpens, serpentium frigori gratissima, ut mirum sit ullum honorem habitum ei.

It is said that ivy now grows in Asia Minor. Theophrastus about 314 b.c. had stated that it did not grow there, nor yet in India except on Mount Meros, and indeed that Harpalus had used every effort to grow it in Media without success, while Alexander had come back victorious from India with his army wearing wreaths of ivy, because of its rarity, in imitation of Father Liber; and it is even now used at solemn festivals among the peoples of Thrace to decorate the wands of that god, and also the worshippers’ helmets and shields, although it is injurious to all trees and plants and destructive to tombs and walls, and very agreeable to chilly snakes, so that it is surprising that any honour has been paid to it.

Smilax

Similis est hederae e Cilicia quidem primum profecta sed in Graecia frequentior quam vocant smilacem, densis geniculata caulibus, spinosis frutectosa ramis, folio hederaceo, parvo, non anguloso, a pediculo emittente pampinos, flore candido, olente lilium. fert racemos labruscae modo, non hederae, colore rubro, conplexa acinis maioribus nucleos ternos, minoribus singulos, nigros durosque, infausta omnibus sacris et coronis, quoniam sit lugubris virgine eius nominis propter amorem iuvenis Croci mutata in hunc fruticem. id volgus ignorans plerumque festa sua polluit hederam existimando, sicut in poetis aut Libero patre aut Sileno, quis omnino scit1 quibus coronentur?
E smilace fiunt codicilli; propriumque materia est ut admota auribus lenem sonum reddat. hederae mira proditur natura ad experienda vina, si vas fiat e ligno eius, vina transfluere ac remanere aquam si qua fuerit mixta.

Resembling ivy is the plant called smilax [A species of bind-weed] which first came from Cilicia, but is now more common in Greece; it has thick jointed stalks and thorny branches that make it a kind of shrub; the leaf resembles that of the ivy, but is small and has no corners, and throws out tendrils from its stalk; the flower is white and has the scent of a lily. It bears clusters of berries like those of the wild vine, not of the ivy; they are red in colour, and the larger ones enclose three hard black stones but the smaller a single stone. This plant is unlucky to use at all sacred rites and for wreaths, because it has a mournful association, a maiden named Smilax having been turned into a smilax shrub because of her love for a youth named Crocus. The common people not knowing this usually pollute their festivals with it because they think that it is ivy; just as in the case of the poets or Father Liber or Silenus, who wear wreaths made of who in the world knows what?
Smilax is used for making tablets; it is a peculiarity of this wood to give out a slight sound when placed to one’s ear. It is said that ivy has a remarkable property [Cato R.R. CXI] for testing wines, inasmuch as a vessel made of its wood allows wine to pass through it, water that has been mixed with the wine stops in the vessel.

Chap. xxii.: Comment Gargantua employt le temps quand l’air estoit pluvieux.

Mais encores que ycelle iournée feust passée sans livres & lectures, ponct elle n’estoyt passée sans profit. Car en beau pré ilz recoloient par cueur quelques plaisans vers de l’agriculture de Virgile, de Hesiode, du Rustice de Politian, descryvoient quelque plaisans epigrammes en latin: puys les mettoient par rondeaux & balades en langue françoise, En bancquetant du vin aisgué separoient l’eau, comme l’enseigne Cato de re rust. & Pline, avecques un goubelet de Lyerre, lavoient le vin en plain bassin d’eau puys le retiroient avec un embut faisoient aller l’eau d’un verre en aultre, bastissoient plusieurs petitz engins automates, c’est à dyre, soy movens eulx mesmes.

un guoubelet de Lierre

The devices Garguantua decreed for the ships in Pantagruel’s expedition:

Sus la pouppe de la seconde estoit hault enlevée une lanterne antiquaire… La huictième un guoubelet de Lierre bien precieux battu d’or à la Damasquine.

Funnel of Ivy

Pliny N.H. xvi. 35, § 63: “Hederae mira proditura natura ad experienda vina, si vas fiat e ligno ejus, vina transfluere et remanere aquam si qua fuerit mista.” Cf. i. 24, n. 11.

entonnoir de lierre

Rabelais a déjà fait allusion à cette prétendue propriété du lierre, au l. 1 [Gargantua], ch XXIV.

un guobelet de lyerre

Rabelais accepte la notion classique, appuyée sur l’autorité de Caton et de Pline, que le lierre (plante consacrée à Bacchus) aide à séparer l’eau et le vin : cf. Garg. XXIV, « En banquetant, du vin aisgué séparoient l’eau, comme l’enseignent Caton, De re rust. [CXV] et Pline [XVI, 35], avecques un guobelet de lyerre; lavoient le vin en plein bassin d’eau, puis le retiroient avec un embut [=entonnoir]».

entonnoir de Lierre.

Allusion à une propriété légendaire du lierre; voir Gargantua, p. 73 et n. 5.

entonnoir de Lierre

«Du vin aisgué séparaient l’eau, comme l’enseigne Cato De re rust. [CXXI], et Pline [XVI, 35], avec un gobelet de Lierre» (Gargantua, chap XXII, p. 259). Cette légende est très répandue.