Notes

descend en eaue

covers theatres…

Toujouts d’apres Pline, XIX, 6 (de § 24, où Rabelais a pu emprunter le bon mot de Caton à propos des chausses-trappes — voir plus haut, XLIIII, 100).

au profit des pescheurs

La plante sert à faire des bâches, des «toiles» et des filets. Rabelais amplifie Pline, XIX, 1 et 2.

descends into water

est sua gloria et Cumano in Campania ad piscium et alitum capturam, eadem et plagis materia: neque enim minores cunctis animalibus insidias quam nobismet ipsis lino tendimus.

The flax of Cumae in Campania also has a reputation of its own for nets for fishing and fowling, and it is also used as a material for making hunting-nets: in fact we use flax to lay no less insidious snares for the whole of the animal kingdom than for ourselves!

Notes

The pleasure of hunters

Le Champenoys

S’il est ainsi que rien tu ne cognois
En ceste forme, & figure presente,
Voicy le vray habit d’un Champenoys,
Qui a tes yeux vivement se presente.
[Champenois: Qui habite la Champagne ou en est originaire]

covers theatres…

Toujouts d’apres Pline, XIX, 6 (de § 24, où Rabelais a pu emprunter le bon mot de Caton à propos des chausses-trappes — voir plus haut, XLIIII, 100).

ceinct les boys…

Il s’agit des filets des toiles que fermaient les vallons vers lesquels on rabattait le gibier. Ces diverses utilisations figuraient déjà chez Pline.

Notes

Covers theatres

covers theatres…

Toujouts d’apres Pline, XIX, 6 (de § 24, où Rabelais a pu emprunter le bon mot de Caton à propos des chausses-trappes — voir plus haut, XLIIII, 100).

couvre les theatres…

Pour protéger les spectateurs du soleil, les Romains couvraient les amphithéâtres avec une immense toile.

Notes

Colombe, army and tents, ca. 1480

Colombe, army and tents, ca. 1480

Colombe, army and tents, ca. 1480

Military tents, 1484

tents

Pseudo-Phiol 2:6 : Now Lamech took for himself two wives. The name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zuillah. And Adah bore Jobab, he was the father of all those dwelling in tents and feeding cattle. And again, she bore him Jobal, who was the first to teach all kinds of musical instruments. In that time, when those inhabiting the earth began to do evil deeds (each one with his neighbor’s wife) and they defiled them, God was angry. And he [Jobal] began to play the lyre and the lute and every instrument of sweet song and to corrupt the earth.

couvre les armés contre le froid

Lib. 3 Chap. vi.: Tents, Jobal son of Lamech invented; notwithstanding that the Phœnicians affirm, that the Nephews of Seculus found them.

than formerly did skins

Book 3, Chapter 9: Jobal, the son of Lamech, made tents, according to Josephus in the first book of the Antiquities, though the Phoenicians attribute them to the grandsons of Aeon, according to Eusebius in the Preparation for the Gospel.
Book 3, Chapter 7: They claim that in such a way this activity [constructing buildings] was gradually reduced to an art — namely, architecture — that teaches a method of building which, according to Diodorus in book [5], they assign to Pallas. But on the basis of Josephus’ testimony, I would rather attribute it to Cain, the son of Adam, the first man, or to Jobal, whom Lamech begot. The former, as we shall explain below, was the first to build a town, and the latter first pitched a tent.

contre le froid

Polydore Vergile, III, vi.

Notes

Attire so many people

eiusdem insulae excelsiore suggestu lanigerae arbores alio modo quam Serum; his folia infecunda quae, ni minora essent, vitium poterant videri. ferunt mali cotonei amplitudine cucurbitas quae maturitate ruptae ostendunt lanuginis pilas ex quibus vestes pretioso linteo faciunt.

XXII. arborem vocant gossypinum, fertiliore etiam Tyro minore, quae distat x͞ p. Iuba circa fruticem lanugines esse tradit, linteaque ea Indicis praestantiora, Arabiae autem arborem ex qua vestes faciant cynas vocari, folio palmae simili. sic Indos suae arbores vestiunt.

XXI. In the same gulf is the island of Tyros [now Bahrein, cf. VI. 148]… On a more elevated plateau in the same island there are tree [cotton-trees] that bear wool, but in a different manner to those [serica, silk] of the Chinese, as the leaves of these trees have no growth on them, and might be thought to be vine-leaves were it not that they are smaller; but they bear gourds of the size of a quince, which when they ripen burst open and disclose balls of down from which an expensive linen for clothing is made.

XXII. Their name for this tree is the gossypinus; it also grows in greater abundance on the smaller island of Tyros, which is ten miles distant from the other. Juba says that this shrub has a woolly down growing round it, the fabric made from which is superior to the linen of India. He also says that there is an Arabian tree called the cynas [prhaps Bombas ceiba] from which cloth is made, which has foliage resembling a palm-leaf.

Toutes les arbres lanificques des Seres,

Lanigeras Serum in mentione gentis eius narravimus, item Indiae arborum magnitudinem. unam e peculiaribus Indiae Vergilius celebravit hebenum, nusquam alibi nasci professus.
We have already described the wool-bearing trees of the Chinese in making mention of that race, and we have spoken of the large size of the trees in India. One of those peculiar to India, the ebony, is spoken of in glowing terms by Virgil, who states that it does not grow in any other country.

Attire so many people

Pliny N.H. xii. 4, § 5: “Lanigeras Serum [arbores] narravimus.” Ibid. xii. 10, § 21: “Ejusdem insulae [Tylos] excelsiore suggestu lanigerae arbores alio modo quam Serum … Ferunt mali cotonei amplitudine curcuritas quae maturitate ruptae ostendunt lanuginis pilas ex quibus vestis pretioso linteo faciunt.” § 22: “Arabiae autem arbores ex quibus vestis faciant cynas vocari [tradit] folio palmae simili. Sic Indos suae arbores vestiunt.”

Tylos

Tylos, île d’Arabie, dont parle Théophraste (H.P., l. IV, ch 9). — «Tylos insula in eodem sinu [Persico] est… ejusdem insulæ excelsiore suggestu lanigeræ arbores alio modo quam Serum… Ferunt cotonei mali amplitudine cucurbitas, quæ maturitate ruptæ ostendunt laanuginis pilas ex quibus vestes pretioso linteo faciunt. Arbores vocant gossympinos.» (Pline, XII, 21.) Lémery a cru retrouver dans le Gossampinus Plinii, le Fromager (Bombax ceyba, L.). Mais la brièveté des fibres du duvet de son fruit (Kapok) l’a rendu (sauf depuis ces derniers temps) impropre à tout usage textile. Mieux vaunt y voir un cotonnier soit Gossypium arboreum, L., avec Fée, soit plutôt, avec de Candolle, G. herbaceum, L. (Paul Delaunay)

Notes

Gossipium arboreum

Swans of the Arabs

Cynes

Arbre d’Arabie, que Pline appelle Cyna.

les Cynes des Arabes

On lit au même endroit de Pline (liv. XII, chap. XI); Juba tradit … Arabiœ arbores ex quibus vestes faciant, cynus vocari, folio palmœ simili. Mais quel est cet arbre, dont le nom vient de χυων, χυνὀζ, chien? Seroit-ce le même que l’églantier ou rosier sauvage que les Grecs nommient χυνἀζ et les Romains rubus caninus, lequel est nommé cynus, et traduit par aubépine dans le supplément au glossaire de Ducange? La forme des feuilles s’y oppose, ce nous semble: χυνἀζ et cynus viennent cependant également de χύων. Ce qui nous fait penser que le mot grec χίννα, genus graminis in Ciliciâ, pourroit bien en venir aussi, puisque c’étoit le nom d’une espèce de chiendent. Nous laissons aux botanistes de profession ces questions à résoudre.

cynes

Arbre qui servoit a fabriquer des étoffes.

le cynes des Arabes

«[Juba tradit]… Arabiæ… arbores ex quibus vestes faciant, cynas vocari, folio palmæ simili». (Pline, XII, 22.) C’est un cotonnier, et, d’après Fée, le Gossypium herbaceum L., form cultivée du G. Stocksii, d’après Masters. (Paul Delaunay)

les Cynes des Arabes

XXII. arborem vocant gossypinum, fertiliore etiam Tyro minore, quae distat x͞ p. Iuba circa fruticem lanugines esse tradit, linteaque ea Indicis praestantiora, Arabiae autem arborem ex qua vestes faciant cynas vocari, folio palmae simili. sic Indos suae arbores vestiunt. in Tyris autem et alia arbor floret albae violae specie, sed magnitudine quadruplici, sine odore, quod miremur in eo tractu.

XXII. Their name for this tree is the gossypinus; it also grows in greater abundance on the smaller island of Tyros, which is ten miles distant from the other. Juba says that this shrub has a woolly down growing round it, the fabric made from which is superior to the linen of India. He also says that there is an Arabian tree called the cynas [Perhaps Bombas ceiba] from which cloth is made, which has foliage resembling a palm-leaf. Similarly the natives of India are provided with clothes by their own trees. But in the Tyros islands there is also another tree [Tamarind] with a blossom like a white violet but four times as large; it has no scent, which may well surprise us in that region of the world.

arbres lanificques, gossampines, cynes, les vignes de Malthe

Il s’agit de la soie et du coton (Pline, XII, 21 et 22). Les gossampines (gossypion) sont assimilées au lin par Pline, XIX, 2. Le coton de Malthe était très réputé dans l’Antiquité, d’où la « Linigera Melite » de Scyllius, cité par Textor, Officina, lxxvi v. Cf Polydore Vergile, De Inventoribus rerum, III,vi ; Servius, Comment. in Georg., II, 121 (voir plus bas, LII, 146, note).

the first Position

i.e. lying down, covered with sheets.

couvert en premiere position

No human but immediately upon birth is hastily wrapped up in it.

premiere position

La chemise est la première pièce du vêtement.

chassis

Chassis: A frame of wood for a window; (hence) also, a woodden, paper, or linnen, window; and, the bands, or borders that are on either side of a dore, gate, or window; also, a Printers Tympane.
Chassissé. Fenestre chassissée. A window that is covered with Paper, or Linnen cloth, in stead of glasse.

chassis

Peut-être la trame de la toile.

Scenes

Fr. chassis. I have adopted the suggestion of Littré. Chassis appears to mean the frame in which anything is fastened, such as a window, or stretched, such as a cloth, and thence anything consisting of a rough canvas on a frame. In the present usage it would refer to the hemp-made canvas rather than the frame. ? Lat. cassis, a net. In iv. 30, Lent’s veins are said to be like a chassis.

châssis

Ouvrage de menuiserie servant d’encadrement. Châssis de chêne. Châssis de châtaignier.

Châssis de papier, châssis de verre, l’ouvrage de menuiserie après qu’il a reçu, dans de petites feuillures pratiquées à cet effet, les carreaux de papier ou de verre destinés à laisser passer la lumière.

chassis

Jeu de mots. Châssis voulait dire le cadre de fer employé par les imprimeurs (Cotgrave, « a Printers Tympane»), mais aussi une « fenétre de lin» (Cotgrave « a woodden, paper or linnen window »).

chassis

Les fenêtres étaient souvent garnie simplement de papier huilé.

chassis

Le mot châssis désigne à la fois le cadre de fer utilisé par les imprimeurs et un «fenêtre de lin».

chassis

Some measure of Rabelais’s technical knowledge of printing may be indicated by the mention of the “chassis.” The “chassis” in printing terminology is a “chase” in English — that is the metal frame into which pages of type are placed, and which, once the type is tightly held in by “quoins” (”coins” in French) are called “formes” (in both Engish and French). In a more general sense “chassis” in French can (and could) mean any kind of frame and it is not therefore certain that Rabelais had the item of printing equipment in mind, although the juxtaposition with a specific mention of the “noble art” may be suggestive.
Note: “Chassis” is defined by Cotgrave (A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues, London, 1611) in the context of printing, as a “printer’s Tympane.” He may well have been influenced by an earlier definition in Claude de Sainliens’s The Treasurie of the French Tong (London, 1580), cited in the Oxford English Dictionary: “Le Chassis, the tympane of a Printers press.” These definitions reveal a misunderstanding of the technicalities of printing presses. In both French and English, “tympan/tympane” means, and always has meant, a double frame, usually of metal, across both parts of which cloth or parchment is stretched, and between which packing material is placed. The whole tympan is hinged to the bed of the press, and paper is put on it, held in position by the “frisket” (from the French “frisquette”), and folded down onto the inked type for printing.… It is quite possible that Rabelais also misunderstood the distinction between chase and tympan — especially since a tympan used cloth or paper. The meaning could, perhaps more plausible, be “sewing frame,” which is the meaning assumed by Huchon in the only other place in which the word appears: Quart Livre, chap 30, p. 609, note D.
M. A. Screech (in his edition of the Tiers Livre) suggests that Rabelais intends a play on words here, using another sense of “chassis” recorded by Cotgrave: “a woodden, paper, or linnen window.” It could be that this second meaning is what led Cotgrave and Sainliens or make their mistaken definition, for a printer’s “tympane” is indeed covered with paper or cloth.

In

Notes

The noble art of printing

le noble art d’Imprimerie

On faisait la pâte à papier avec du lin; la pâte de bois est bien postérieure.

le noble art d’Imprimerie

That Rabelais calls printing a “noble art” is significant. No other occupation or profession merits the epithet “noble” except the cooks hidden inside the “truye” in chapter 40 of the Quart Livre, “comme dedans le cheval de Troye.”