DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.63221#0328
CHAPTER XVII
(1533—1552)
I
GARGANTUA AND PANTAGRUEL
There are many aspects under which we can regard the
New Gospel of the Renaissance—Rabelais’ great book—full
of “ the caprices of his strength,” full of “ huge fantasies
of the debonnair giants, whom he served in all humility.”
He wrote at a time when men and women still delighted
in fairy-tales; and he used them with childish enjoyment,
as a means of conveying realities. His fiction pleased him
almost as much as his irony. His first book tells the ex-
periences of the Giant Gargantua, son of the Giant Grand-
gousier; the other four recount the education and adventures
of Gargantua’s son, Prince Pantagruel—also a giant—who,
in his manhood, sets forth in his ship to seek “the Temple
of the divine Bacbuc”—the well-head of the Fountain of
magic wine—the distant shrine of knowledge. Gargantua
is less primitive than Grandgousier. Pantagruel is more
intellectual than Gargantua; his outlook is larger, his aims
are more spiritual. Grandgousier was said to be the like-
ness of Louis XII. Gargantua and Pantagruel together are
supposed to give a picture of Francis. The portraits are
rather indefinite, but the whole book is full of undercurrents
(1533—1552)
I
GARGANTUA AND PANTAGRUEL
There are many aspects under which we can regard the
New Gospel of the Renaissance—Rabelais’ great book—full
of “ the caprices of his strength,” full of “ huge fantasies
of the debonnair giants, whom he served in all humility.”
He wrote at a time when men and women still delighted
in fairy-tales; and he used them with childish enjoyment,
as a means of conveying realities. His fiction pleased him
almost as much as his irony. His first book tells the ex-
periences of the Giant Gargantua, son of the Giant Grand-
gousier; the other four recount the education and adventures
of Gargantua’s son, Prince Pantagruel—also a giant—who,
in his manhood, sets forth in his ship to seek “the Temple
of the divine Bacbuc”—the well-head of the Fountain of
magic wine—the distant shrine of knowledge. Gargantua
is less primitive than Grandgousier. Pantagruel is more
intellectual than Gargantua; his outlook is larger, his aims
are more spiritual. Grandgousier was said to be the like-
ness of Louis XII. Gargantua and Pantagruel together are
supposed to give a picture of Francis. The portraits are
rather indefinite, but the whole book is full of undercurrents