DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.63221#0310
266
THE FRENCH RENAISSANCE
comrades. Guillaume, Sieur de Langeais, gave Rabelais a
cottage opposite the Chateau. He must have dined often
at their table and kept the best society; he must have heard
free discussion of every theme that interested his busy
brain. But his hunger for experience remained still un-
satisfied. Living in other men’s houses meant a certain
amount of restraint. The desire to wander again possessed
him ; he bade farewell to his hosts and resumed his journey. 1
The first sensation of liberty over, he began to shape
his plans. The Universities—centres of good company as
well as of learning—attracted him. His first experiences
were not particularly edifying. At the College of Bordeaux,
with which he began, “ ne trouva grand exercise,” either for
his mind or his body; and he carried away little more than
a jovial memory of the boatmen playing at dice on the
shore. At Toulouse “he learned dancing thoroughly and
became well-skilled in sword-play with both hands : such as
is ever the fashion among the Students of that University.”
It was wise of him to try nothing more heretical than danc-
ing, in the town of bigots. But like the less prudent Dolet,
he found he could not abide in a place which, as he said,
burned its thinkers “ like salted herrings. ” He was not
anxious for the stake. “ I am thirsty enough by nature,” he
remarked, “ without heating myself any more,” and he lost no
time in departing. A leisurely journey to Bourges was his
next move. At Nimes he saw the Pont du Gard and the
1 There is a story that the du Bellays made him a Cure of
a neighbouring village, Sonday, where he first practised medicine
and where he remained a long time. But there is no credible
evidence to give stability to so improbable a legend.
THE FRENCH RENAISSANCE
comrades. Guillaume, Sieur de Langeais, gave Rabelais a
cottage opposite the Chateau. He must have dined often
at their table and kept the best society; he must have heard
free discussion of every theme that interested his busy
brain. But his hunger for experience remained still un-
satisfied. Living in other men’s houses meant a certain
amount of restraint. The desire to wander again possessed
him ; he bade farewell to his hosts and resumed his journey. 1
The first sensation of liberty over, he began to shape
his plans. The Universities—centres of good company as
well as of learning—attracted him. His first experiences
were not particularly edifying. At the College of Bordeaux,
with which he began, “ ne trouva grand exercise,” either for
his mind or his body; and he carried away little more than
a jovial memory of the boatmen playing at dice on the
shore. At Toulouse “he learned dancing thoroughly and
became well-skilled in sword-play with both hands : such as
is ever the fashion among the Students of that University.”
It was wise of him to try nothing more heretical than danc-
ing, in the town of bigots. But like the less prudent Dolet,
he found he could not abide in a place which, as he said,
burned its thinkers “ like salted herrings. ” He was not
anxious for the stake. “ I am thirsty enough by nature,” he
remarked, “ without heating myself any more,” and he lost no
time in departing. A leisurely journey to Bourges was his
next move. At Nimes he saw the Pont du Gard and the
1 There is a story that the du Bellays made him a Cure of
a neighbouring village, Sonday, where he first practised medicine
and where he remained a long time. But there is no credible
evidence to give stability to so improbable a legend.