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LAUGHTER’S THE
PROPERTY OF MAN.
LIVE JOYFULLY
GARGANTUA AND PANTAGRUEL (1532–1564),
FRANÇOIS RABELAIS
I
n the five-volume Histories
of Gargantua and Pantagruel,
François Rabelais builds
a fantasy world around two giants
and their companions. The text
includes all the elements of
medieval folk humor that would
have been familiar to contemporary
readers—bodily functions, gross
sexual behavior, birth, and
death. Rich in satire, the tales
are also fueled by the energy of
Renaissance humanism, which
spread into northern Europe from
Italy. “Humanism” at this time
had a different meaning from the
modern-day term, being concernedwith a resurgence of interest in the
wisdom of the classical world. Until
this point, education had involved
blindly following the church’s
narrow scholastic tradition; the
major humanist impetus was to
build a complete program of
education that included philosophy,
grammar, poetry, history, and
ancient Greek and Latin.Scholarly and satirical
Poised at the threshold of this
rapidly changing world, Rabelais
finds ways to weave a humanist
agenda into his giant adventures –
but he first engages his reader’s
attention with scatological humor
and absurd fantasy. At the very
beginning, the text presents a
midwife’s-eye view of the mother
in labor, as the baby Gargantua
struggles up through her body to be
born out of her left ear. The exploits,
battles, and quests of Gargantua
and his son Pantagruel rattle
on, liberally embellished with
descriptions of meat feasts and
shovelfuls of mustard tossed
into cavernous mouths; pilgrims
consumed in a salad; massive
codpieces; armies washed away by
urination; and cannonballs that fall
out of Gargantua’s hair after battle.IN CONTEXT
FOCUS
Renaissance humanismBEFORE
1304 –74 Italian scholar and
poet Petrarch translates Greek
and Roman scrolls, which are
the springboard for humanism
and the Italian Renaissance.1353 The 100 stories told by
10 young Florentines fleeing
from the plague in Boccaccio’s
The Decameron set a standard
for Renaissance literature,
and influence authors from
Chaucer to Shakespeare.1460 Ploughman of Bohemia,
a dialogue between Death
and a plowman, by Johannes
von Tepl, is one of Germany’s
earliest humanist poems.1522–35 Dutch humanist
Erasmus publishes his own
Greek and Latin translations
of the New Testament; they
are the basis for Martin
Luther’s German and William
Tyndale’s English translations.Time, which diminishes
and erodes all things,
increases and augments
generous deeds ...
Gargantua and
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