Editing François Rabelais (section)

== Novels ==
=== ''Gargantua and Pantagruel'' ===
{{Main|Gargantua and Pantagruel}}
[[File:Gustave Dore X.jpg|thumb|Illustration for ''Gargantua and Pantagruel'' by [[Gustave Doré]]]]
[[File:Gustave Dore XII.jpg|thumb|Illustration for ''Gargantua and Pantagruel'' by Gustave Doré]]

''Gargantua and Pantagruel'' relates the adventures of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel. The tales are adventurous and erudite, festive and gross, ecumenical, and rarely—if ever—solemn for long. The first book, chronologically, was ''Pantagruel: King of the Dipsodes'' and the Gargantua mentioned in the Prologue refers not to Rabelais' own work but to storybooks that were being sold at the Lyon fairs in the early 1530s.{{sfn|Demerson|Demerson|1995|pp=297, 300}} In the first chapter of the earliest book, Pantagruel's lineage is listed back 60 generations to a giant named Chalbroth. The narrator dismisses the skeptics of the time—who would have thought a giant far too large for [[Noah's Ark]]—stating that Hurtaly (the giant reigning during the flood and a great fan of soup) simply rode the Ark like a kid on a rocking horse, or like a fat Swiss guy on a cannon.{{sfn|Demerson|Demerson|1995|pp=308–314}}

In the Prologue to ''Gargantua'' the narrator addresses the: "Most illustrious drinkers, and ''you'' the most precious pox-ridden{{mdash}}for to ''you'' and ''you'' alone are my writings dedicated ..." before turning to Plato's ''[[Symposium (Plato)|Banquet]]''.{{sfn|Demerson|Demerson|1995|p=50}} An unprecedented [[syphilis]] epidemic had raged through Europe for over 30 years when the book was published,<ref>{{cite journal| first= James |last= Marshall | title = Rabelais on Syphilis | journal = Nature | volume = 162 | issue = 4107 | page = 118 | doi= 10.1038/162118a0 | date = 7 July 1948 | bibcode = 1948Natur.162..118M | doi-access = free }}</ref> even the king of France was reputed to have been infected. Etion was the first giant in Pantagruel's list of ancestors to suffer from the disease.{{sfn|Demerson|Demerson|1995|p=510}}

Although most chapters are humorous, wildly fantastic and frequently absurd, a few relatively serious passages have become famous for expressing humanistic ideals of the time. In particular, the chapters on Gargantua's boyhood and Gargantua's paternal letter to Pantagruel<ref>{{cite book|last=Rabelais|first=François|title=The Histories of Gargantua and Pantagruel|translator=J. M. Cohen|location=Harmondsworth|publisher=Penguin|series=Penguin Classics|year=1955}}</ref>{{rp|192–96}} present a quite detailed vision of education.

==== Thélème ====
{{Redirect2|Thélème|Abbey of Thélème|the new religious movement|Thelema|the Thelemic monastery|Abbey of Thelema}}

In the second novel, ''Gargantua'', M. Alcofribas narrates the Abbey of Thélème, built by the giant Gargantua. It differs markedly from the monastic norm, since it is open to both monks and nuns and has a swimming pool, maid service, and no clocks in sight. Only the good-looking are permitted to enter.{{sfn|Demerson|Demerson|1995|pp=268–269}} The inscription at the gate first specifies who is not welcome: hypocrites, bigots, the pox-ridden, Goths, Magoths, straw-chewing law clerks, usurious grinches, old or officious judges, and burners of heretics.{{sfn|Demerson|Demerson|1995|p=272}} When the members are defined positively, the text becomes more inviting:
<blockquote><poem>
::::Honour, praise, distraction
::::Herein lies subtraction
::::in the tuning up of joy.
::::To healthy bodies so employed
::::Do pass on this reaction:
::::Honour, praise, distraction{{sfn|Demerson|Demerson|1995|p=274}}</poem></blockquote>

[[File:Gustave Doré -- FAY CE QUE VOUDRAS.jpg|300px|thumb|left|Inscription above the Abbey of Thélème<br />(Gustave Doré)]]
The Thélèmites in the abbey live according to a single rule:

<blockquote>DO WHAT YOU WANT</blockquote>

{{clear}}

=== ''The Third Book'' ===
[[File:RabelaisPentagruelTitlepage1571.jpg|thumb|250px|Titlepage of a 1571 edition containing the last three books of Pantagruel: ''Le Tiers Livre des Faits & Dits Heroïques du Bon Pantagruel'' (The Third Book of the True and Reputed Heroic Deeds of the Noble Pantagruel)]]

Published in 1546 under his own name with the ''privilège'' granted by Francis I for the first edition and by Henri II for the 1552 edition, ''The Third Book'' was condemned by the Sorbonne, like the previous tomes. In it, Rabelais revisited discussions he had had while working as a secretary to Geoffroy d'Estissac earlier in Fontenay–le–Comte, where [[The woman question|''la querelle des femmes'']] had been a lively subject of debate.{{sfn|Boulenger|1978|p=xix}} More recent exchanges with [[Marguerite de Navarre]]—possibly about the question of clandestine marriage and the [[Book of Tobit]] whose canonical status was being debated at the [[Council of Trent]]—led Rabelais to dedicate the book to her before she wrote the ''[[Heptaméron]]''.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Rabelais and Marguerite de Navarre on Sixteenth-Century Views of Clandestine Marriage |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20061415| first= Cathleen M. |last= Bauschatz | journal = Sixteenth Century Journal | volume = 34 | issue = 2 | pages = 395–408 | date = 2003| doi = 10.2307/20061415 | jstor = 20061415 }}</ref>
[[File:Consultation de la sybille de Panzoust.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Sybyl of Panzoust]]
In contrast to the two preceding chronicles, the dialogue between the characters is much more developed than the plot elements in the third book. In particular, the central question of the book, which Panurge and Pantagruel consider from multiple points of view, is an abstract one: whether Panurge should marry or not. Torn between the desire for a wife and the fear of being cuckolded, Panurge engages in divinatory methods, like dream interpretation and [[bibliomancy]]. He consults authorities vested with revealed knowledge, like the sibyl of Panzoust or the mute Nazdecabre, profane acquaintances, like the theologian Hippothadée or the philosopher Trouillogan,<ref>{{cite book|chapter-url=https://renom.univ-tours.fr/fr/index/corpus/francois-rabelais/le-tiers-livre-1552/comment-trouillogan-philosophe-traicte-la-difficulte-de-mariage-chapitre-xxxv |chapter=XXXV: Comment Trouillogan Philosophe traicte la difficulté de mariage. |page=113|year=1552 |title=Tiers Livre |first=François|last=Rabelais}}</ref> and even the jester [[Triboulet]]. It is likely that several of the characters refer to real people: [[Abel Lefranc]] argues that Hippothadée was [[Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples]],<ref>{{cite web|website=La Vie des Classiques|date=30 October 2019|title=Les amis de Guillaume Budé – Hippothadée représente-t-il Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples|language=fr|url=https://laviedesclassiques.fr/article/les-amis-de-guillaume-bud%C3%A9-hippothad%C3%A9e-repr%C3%A9sente-t-il-jacques-lef%C3%A8vre-d%E2%80%99%C3%A9taples}}</ref> Rondibilis was the doctor [[Guillaume Rondelet]], the [[esoteric]] Her Trippa corresponds to [[Cornelius Agrippa]].{{sfn|Rabelais|1994|p=1412}} One of the comic features of the story is the contradictory interpretations Pantagruel and Panurge get embroiled in, the first of which being the paradoxical [[encomium]] of debts in chapter III.{{sfn|Rabelais|1994|p=1424}} ''The Third Book'', deeply indebted to ''[[In Praise of Folly]]'', contains the first-known attestation of the word ''paradoxe'' in French.{{sfn|Huchon|2011|page=24}}

The more reflective tone shows the characters' evolution from the earlier tomes. Here Panurge is not as crafty as Pantagruel and is stubborn in his will to turn every sign to his advantage, refusing to listen to advice he had himself sought out. For example, when Her Trippa reads dark omens in his future marriage, Panurge accuses him of the same blind self-love (''philautie'') from which he seems to suffer. His erudition is more often put to work for pedantry than let to settle into wisdom. By contrast, Pantagruel's speech gains in weightiness by the third book, the exuberance of the young giant having faded.{{sfn|Screech|1992|pp=308–312}}

At the end of the ''Third Book'', the protagonists decide to set sail in search of a discussion with the Oracle of the Divine Bottle. The last chapters are focused on the praise of Pantagruelion, which combines properties of linen and hemp—a plant used in the 16th century for both the hangman's rope and medicinal purposes, being copiously loaded onto the ships.<ref>{{Cite conference|language=fr|last=Demonet |first=Marie-Luce |title=Polysémie et pharmacie dans le Tiers Livre |book-title=Rabelais et le Tiers Livre|year=1996 |location=Nice |url=https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00264797 |pages=61–84}}</ref> As a naturalist inspired by [[Pliny the Elder]] and [[Charles Estienne]], the narrator intercedes in the story, first describing the plant in great detail, then waxing lyrical on its various qualities.<ref>{{cite book |first=François |last=Rigolot |title=Les Langages de Rabelais |publisher=Droz |year=1996 |pages=144–152 |language= fr}}</ref>

=== ''The Fourth Book'' ===

[[File:Paroles_gelées_-_Chapitre_LVI_du_Quart_Livre_illustré_par_Gustave_Doré.jpg|thumb|Gustave Doré's illustration of the Frozen Words episode (Chapter 56)]]

Rabelais began work on ''The Fourth Book'' while still in Metz. He dropped off a manuscript containing eleven chapters and ending mid-sentence in Lyon on his way to Rome to work as Cardinal du Bellay's personal physician in 1548. According to Jean Plattard, this publication served two purposes: first, it brought Rabelais some much-needed money; and second, it allowed him to respond to those who considered his work blasphemous. While the prologue denounced slanderers, the following chapters did not raise any polemical issues. Already it contained some of the best-known episodes, including the storm at sea and Panurge's sheep.{{sfn|Plattard|1930|pp=229–234}} It was framed as an erratic odyssey,{{sfn|Screech|1992|pp=379–407}} inspired in part by the [[Argonauts]] and the news of [[Jacques Cartier]]'s voyage to Canada,<ref>{{Cite conference | author=Marie-Luce Demonet|title=Les Argonautiques et le Quart Livre de Rabelais|publisher=MOM editions|volume=53|conference=Actes du colloque de Tours, 20–22 octobre 2011|language=fr|year=2015|url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/mom_0151-7015_2015_act_53_1_3382}}</ref> and in part by the imaginary voyage described by [[Lucian]] in ''[[A True Story]]'', which provided Rabelais not only with several anecdotes, but also with a first-person narrator who regularly insisted on the ''veracity'' of obviously fantastical elements of the story.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Le Cadet |first=Nicolas |journal=Réforme, Humanisme, Renaissance |year=2012 |lang=fr |issue=74 |pages=7–24 |title=Le topos lucianesque des « histoires vraies » et la poétique du ''Quart Livre'' |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/rhren_1771-1347_2012_num_74_1_3159 }}</ref> The full version appeared in 1552, after Rabelais received a royal privilege on 6 Aug 1550 for the exclusive right to publish his work in French, [[Tuscan dialect|Tuscan]], Greek, and Latin. This, he accomplished with the help of the young Cardinal of Châtillon ([[Odet de Coligny]])—who would later convert to Protestantism{{sfn|Huchon|2011|p=335}} and be excommunicated.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=48VXAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA247 |title=Bullarum diplomatum et privilegiorum sanctorum Romanorum Pontificum, Taurinensis editio |volume=7 |location=Turin |publisher=Dalmazzo |year=1862 |pages=247–249 |language=la}}</ref> Rabelais thanks the Cardinal for his help in the prefatory letter signed 28 January 1552 and, for the first time in the Pantagruel series, titled the prologue in his own name rather than using a pseudonym.{{sfn|Screech|1979|pp=321–322}}