François Rabelais

François Rabelais (ca. 1494 - April 9, 1553) was a major French Renaissance writer.

Biography

Although the place (or date) of his birth are not reliably documented, it is probable that François Rabelais was born in 1494 near Chinon, Indre-et-Loire, where his father worked as a lawyer.

He was first a novice of the Franciscan order, and later a friar at Fontenay-le-Comte, where he studied Greek and Latin, as well as science, philology, and law, already becoming known and respected by the humanists of his era, including Budé. Harassed by the Franciscan leadership due to the directions of his studies, Rabelais petitioned Pope Clement VII and was granted permission to leave the Franciscans and enter the Benedictine order at Maillezais, where he was more warmly received.

Later he left the monastery to study at the University of Poitiers and University of Montpellier. In 1532 he moved to Lyon, one of the intellectual centres of France, and not only practiced medicine, but edited Latin works for the printer Sebastian Gryphius. As a doctor, he used his spare time to write and publish humorous pamphlets which were critical of established authority and stressed his own perception of individual liberty. His revolutionary works, although satirical, revealed an astute observer of the social and political events unfolding during the first half of the sixteenth century.

Using the pseudonym Alcofribas Nasier, in 1532 he published his first book, Pantagruel, that would be the start of his Gargantua series (see Gargantua and Pantagruel). In his book, Rabelais sang the praises of the wines from his hometown of Chinon through vivid descriptions of the eat, drink and be merry lifestyle of the main character, the giant Pantagruel, and his friends. Despite the great popularity of his book, both it and his prequel book on the life of Pantagruel's father Gargantua were condemned by the academics at the Sorbonne for their unorthodox ideas and by the Roman Catholic Church for its derision of certain religious practices. Rabelais's third book, published under his own name, was also banned.

With support from members of the prominent du Bellay family (esp. Jean du Bellay), Rabelais received the approval from King François I, to continue to publish his collection. However, after the death of the enlightened king, Rabelais was frowned upon by the academic elite, and the French Parliament suspended the sale of his fourth book.

Afterwards, Rabelais travelled frequently to Rome with du Bellay, and lived for a short time in Turin with du Bellay's brother, Guillaume, during which François I was his patron. Rabelais probably spent some time in hiding, threatened by being labeled a heretic. Only the protection of du Bellay saved Rabelais after the condemnation of his novel by the Sorbonne.

Rabelais later taught medicine at Montpellier in 1537 and 1538, and in 1547 became curate of Saint-Christophe-du-Jambet and of Meudon, from which he resigned before his death in Paris in 1553.

There are diverging accounts of Rabelais' death and his last words. According to some, he wrote a famous one-sentence Will: "I have nothing, I owe a great deal, and the rest I leave to the poor", and his last words were "I am off in search of a great perhaps."

Rabelais and Thelema

Starting from 1532, Rabelais wrote Gargantua and Pantagruel, a connected series of books. They tell the story of two giants—a father (Gargantua) and his son (Pantagruel) and their adventures—written in an amusing, extravagant, and satirical vein.

While the first two books are built around the lives of the two giants, the rest of the series is mostly devoted to the adventures of Pantagruel's friends - such as Panurge, a roguish erudite maverick, Brother Jean, a bold, voracious and boozing ex-monk, and others - and their collective naval journey in search of the Divine Bottle.

Even though most chapters are humorous, wildly fantastic and sometimes absurd, a few relatively serious passages have become famous for descriptions of humanistic ideals of the time. In particular, the letter of Gargantua to Pantagruel and the chapters on Gargantua's boyhood present a rather detailed vision of education.

It is in the first book where Rabelais writes of the Abbey of Theleme, built by the giant Gargantua. It pokes fun at the monastic institiutions, since his abbey has a swimming pool, maid service, and no clocks in sight.

One of the verses of the inscription on the gate to the Abbey of Theleme says:

Grace, honour, praise, delight,

Here sojourn day and night.

Sound bodies lined

With a good mind,

Do here pursue with might

Grace, honour, praise, delight.

But below the humor was a very real concept of utopia and the ideal society. Rabelais gives us a description of how the Thelemites of the Abbey lived and the rules they lived by:

All their life was spent not in laws, statutes, or rules, but according to their own free will and pleasure. They rose out of their beds when they thought good; they did eat, drink, labour, sleep, when they had a mind to it and were disposed for it. None did awake them, none did offer to constrain them to eat, drink, nor to do any other thing; for so had Gargantua established it. In all their rule and strictest tie of their order there was but this one clause to be observed,

Do What Thou Wilt;

because men that are free, well-born, well-bred, and conversant in honest companies, have naturally an instinct and spur that prompteth them unto virtuous actions, and withdraws them from vice, which is called honour. Those same men, when by base subjection and constraint they are brought under and kept down, turn aside from that noble disposition by which they formerly were inclined to virtue, to shake off and break that bond of servitude wherein they are so tyrannously enslaved; for it is agreeable with the nature of man to long after things forbidden and to desire what is denied us.

See also: Thelema

Rabelais and language

The French Renaissance was a time of linguistic controversies. Among the issues that were debated by scholars was the question of the origin of language. What was the first language? Is language something that all humans are born with or something that they learn (nature versus nurture)? Is there some sort of connection between words and the objects they refer to or are words purely arbitrary? Rabelais deals with these matters, among many others, in his books.

The early 16th century was also a time of innovations and change for the French language, especially in its written form. The first grammar was published in 1530, followed nine years later by the first dictionary. Since spelling was far less codified than it is now, each author used their own orthography. Rabelais himself developed his personal set of - rather complex - rules. He was a supporter of etymological spelling i.e. one that reflects the origin of words and was thus opposed to those who favoured a simplified spelling, one that reflects the actual pronunciation of words.

Rabelais' use of his native tongue was astoundingly original, lively and creative. He introduced dozens of Greek, Latin and Italian loan-words and direct translations of Greek and Latin compound words and idioms into French. He also used many dialectal forms and invented new words and metaphors, some of which have become part of the standard language and are still used nowadays. Rabelais is arguably one of the authors who have enriched the French language in the most significant way.

His works are also known for being filled with sexual double-entendre, dirty jokes and bawdy songs that can still surprise - or even shock - modern readers.

Contemporary writers on Rabelais

Rabelais has attracted many modern writers and scholars. One of the most notable was English mystic, Aleister Crowley.

Anatole France lectured on him in Argentina. John Cowper Powys, D. B. Wyndham Lewis, and Lucien Febvre (one of the founders of the French historical school Annales) wrote books about him. Mikhail Bakhtin, a Russian philosopher and critic, derived his celebrated concept of the carnivalesque and grotesque body from the world of Rabelais.

Rabelais was also a major reference point for a few main characters (University Professors and Assistant) in Robertson Davies's novel The Rebel Angels, part of the Cornish Trilogy.

Trivia

Progressive rock band Gentle Giant recorded two songs inspired by Gargantua and Pantagruel. These were "Pantagruel's Nativity" on their 1971 album Acquiring the Taste, and "The Advent of Panurge" on 1973's Octopus (album).

The bus that runs late at night in Montpellier - his university town - is named "Le Rabelais" in his honour.

Rabelais is mentioned in the Meredith Willson musical The Music Man. In Act One the ladies of the town tell Professor Harold Hill that Marian the Librarian advocates "dirty books" (Chaucer, Rabelais, Balzac); in Act Two the ladies admit to Marian, "The Professor told us to read those books, and we simply adored them all!"

The title song on Donald Fagen's 2006 album Morph the Cat refers to the Cat as a "Rabelaisian puff of smoke".

Rabelais is mentioned extensively in the Novel "The Rebel Angels" written by Robertson Davies. His works are the focus of the main character, Maria Theotoky's Ph.D. thesis.

La Trobe University's (Australia) Magazine is also known by the same name.

Passing reference is also made to Rabelais by Alan Bennet in his play "Habeas Corpus"

Bibliography

Pantagruel - 1532
La vie très horrifique du grand Gargantua - 1534
Tiers Livre see Pantagruel - 1546
Quart Livre see Pantagruel - 1552
Two versions of a fifth book appeared after his death but how much of this work is that of Rabelais remains unknown. See Pantagruel.
Febvre, Lucien. Gottlieb, Beatrice trans. The Problem of Unbelief in the Sixteenth Century: The Religion of Rabelais (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982)

References

Alex Online. (2003). Alex Online. Retrieved on April 20, 2006.
Del Campo, Gerald. Rabelais: The First Thelemite. The Order of Thelemic Knights.
Thelemapedia. (2004). François Rabelais. Retrieved on April 14, 2006.