To the Honoured, Noble Translator of Rabelais.
Rabelais, whose wit prodigiously was made, All men, professions, actions to invade, With so much furious vigour, as if it Had lived o'er each of them, and each had quit, Yet with such happy sleight and careless skill, As, like the serpent, doth with laughter kill, So that although his noble leaves appear Antic and Gottish, and dull souls forbear To turn them o'er, lest they should only find Nothing but savage monsters of a mind,--No shapen beauteous thoughts; yet when the wise Seriously strip him of his wild disguise, Melt down his dross, refine his massy ore, And polish that which seem'd rough-cast before, Search his deep sense, unveil his hidden mirth, And make that fiery which before seem'd earth (Conquering those things of highest consequence, What's difficult of language or of sense), He will appear some noble table writ In the old Egyptian hieroglyphic wit;Where, though you monsters and grotescoes see, You meet all mysteries of philosophy.
For he was wise and sovereignly bred To know what mankind is, how 't may be led:
He stoop'd unto them, like that wise man, who Rid on a stick, when 's children would do so.
For we are easy sullen things, and must Be laugh'd aright, and cheated into trust;Whilst a black piece of phlegm, that lays about Dull menaces, and terrifies the rout, And cajoles it, with all its peevish strength Piteously stretch'd and botch'd up into length, Whilst the tired rabble sleepily obey Such opiate talk, and snore away the day, By all his noise as much their minds relieves, As caterwauling of wild cats frights thieves.
But Rabelais was another thing, a man Made up of all that art and nature can Form from a fiery genius,--he was one Whose soul so universally was thrown Through all the arts of life, who understood Each stratagem by which we stray from good;So that he best might solid virtue teach, As some 'gainst sins of their own bosoms preach:
He from wise choice did the true means prefer, In fool's coat acting th' philosopher.
Thus hoary Aesop's beasts did mildly tame Fierce man, and moralize him into shame;Thus brave romances, while they seem to lay Great trains of lust, platonic love display;Thus would old Sparta, if a seldom chance Show'd a drunk slave, teach children temperance;Thus did the later poets nobly bring The scene to height, making the fool the king.
And, noble sir, you vigorously have trod In this hard path, unknown, un-understood By its own countrymen, 'tis you appear Our full enjoyment which was our despair, Scattering his mists, cheering his cynic frowns (For radiant brightness now dark Rabelais crowns), Leaving your brave heroic cares, which must Make better mankind and embalm your dust, So undeceiving us, that now we see All wit in Gascon and in Cromarty, Besides that Rabelais is convey'd to us, And that our Scotland is not barbarous.
J. De la Salle.
Rablophila.
The First Decade.
The Commendation.
Musa! canas nostrorum in testimonium Amorum, Et Gargantueas perpetuato faces, Utque homini tali resultet nobilis Eccho:
Quicquid Fama canit, Pantagruelis erit.
The Argument.
Here I intend mysteriously to sing With a pen pluck'd from Fame's own wing, Of Gargantua that learn'd breech-wiping king.
Decade the First.
I.
Help me, propitious stars; a mighty blaze Benumbs me! I must sound the praise Of him hath turn'd this crabbed work in such heroic phrase.
II.
What wit would not court martyrdom to hold Upon his head a laurel of gold, Where for each rich conceit a Pumpion-pearl is told:
III.
And such a one is this, art's masterpiece, A thing ne'er equall'd by old Greece:
A thing ne'er match'd as yet, a real Golden Fleece.
IV.
Vice is a soldier fights against mankind;
Which you may look but never find:
For 'tis an envious thing, with cunning interlined.
V.
And thus he rails at drinking all before 'em, And for lewd women does be-whore 'em, And brings their painted faces and black patches to th' quorum.
VI.
To drink he was a furious enemy Contented with a six-penny--(with diamond hatband, silver spurs, six horses.) pie--VII.
And for tobacco's pate-rotunding smoke, Much had he said, and much more spoke, But 'twas not then found out, so the design was broke.
VIII.
Muse! Fancy! Faith! come now arise aloud, Assembled in a blue-vein'd cloud, And this tall infant in angelic arms now shroud.
IX.
To praise it further I would now begin Were 't now a thoroughfare and inn, It harbours vice, though 't be to catch it in a gin.
X.
Therefore, my Muse, draw up thy flowing sail, And acclamate a gentle hail With all thy art and metaphors, which must prevail.
Jam prima Oceani pars est praeterita nostri.
Imparibus restat danda secunda modis.
Quam si praestiterit mentem Daemon malus addam, Cum sapiens totus prodierit Rabelais.
Malevolus.
(Reader, the Errata, which in this book are not a few, are casually lost;and therefore the Translator, not having leisure to collect them again, craves thy pardon for such as thou may'st meet with.)The Author's Prologue to the First Book.
