Gargantua & Pantagruel (French Literature Classic). Francois Rabelais

Чтение книги онлайн.

Читать онлайн книгу Gargantua & Pantagruel (French Literature Classic) - Francois Rabelais страница 52

Автор:
Серия:
Издательство:
Gargantua & Pantagruel (French Literature Classic) - Francois Rabelais

Скачать книгу

tailors, gold-drawers, velvet-weavers, tapestry-makers and upholsterers, who wrought there every one in his own trade, and all for the aforesaid jolly friars and nuns of the new stamp. They were furnished with matter and stuff from the hands of the Lord Nausiclete, who every year brought them seven ships from the Perlas and Cannibal Islands, laden with ingots of gold, with raw silk, with pearls and precious stones. And if any margarites, called unions, began to grow old and lose somewhat of their natural whiteness and lustre, those with their art they did renew by tendering them to eat to some pretty cocks, as they use to give casting unto hawks.

       Table of Contents

      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.

      By this liberty they entered into a very laudable emulation to do all of them what they saw did please one. If any of the gallants or ladies should say, Let us drink, they would all drink. If any one of them said, Let us play, they all played. If one said, Let us go a-walking into the fields they went all. If it were to go a-hawking or a-hunting, the ladies mounted upon dainty well-paced nags, seated in a stately palfrey saddle, carried on their lovely fists, miniardly begloved every one of them, either a sparrowhawk or a laneret or a marlin, and the young gallants carried the other kinds of hawks. So nobly were they taught, that there was neither he nor she amongst them but could read, write, sing, play upon several musical instruments, speak five or six several languages, and compose in them all very quaintly, both in verse and prose. Never were seen so valiant knights, so noble and worthy, so dexterous and skilful both on foot and a-horse-back, more brisk and lively, more nimble and quick, or better handling all manner of weapons than were there. Never were seen ladies so proper and handsome, so miniard and dainty, less froward, or more ready with their hand and with their needle in every honest and free action belonging to that sex, than were there. For this reason, when the time came that any man of the said abbey, either at the request of his parents, or for some other cause, had a mind to go out of it, he carried along with him one of the ladies, namely, her whom he had before that chosen for his mistress, and (they) were married together. And if they had formerly in Theleme lived in good devotion and amity, they did continue therein and increase it to a greater height in their state of matrimony; and did entertain that mutual love till the very last day of their life, in no less vigour and fervency than at the very day of their wedding. Here must not I forget to set down unto you a riddle which was found under the ground as they were laying the foundation of the abbey, engraven in a copper plate, and it was thus as followeth.

       Table of Contents

      Poor mortals, who wait for a happy day,

      Cheer up your hearts, and hear what I shall say:

      If it be lawful firmly to believe

      That the celestial bodies can us give

      Wisdom to judge of things that are not yet;

      Or if from heaven such wisdom we may get

      As may with confidence make us discourse

      Of years to come, their destiny and course;

      I to my hearers give to understand

      That this next winter, though it be at hand,

      Yea and before, there shall appear a race

      Of men who, loth to sit still in one place,

      Shall boldly go before all people’s eyes,

      Suborning men of divers qualities

      To draw them unto covenants and sides,

      In such a manner that, whate’er betides,

      They’ll move you, if you give them ear, no doubt,

      With both your friends and kindred to fall out.

      They’ll make a vassal to gain-stand his lord,

      And children their own parents; in a word,

      All reverence shall then be banished,

      No true respect to other shall be had.

      They’ll say that every man should have his turn,

      Both in his going forth and his return;

      And hereupon there shall arise such woes,

      Such jarrings, and confused to’s and fro’s,

      That never were in history such coils

      Set down as yet, such tumults and garboils.

      Then shall you many gallant men see by

      Valour stirr’d up, and youthful fervency,

      Who, trusting too much in their hopeful time,

      Live but a while, and perish in their prime.

      Neither shall any, who this course shall run,

      Leave off the race which he hath once begun,

      Till they the heavens with noise by their contention

      Have fill’d, and with their steps the earth’s dimension.

      Then those shall have no less authority,

      That have no faith, than those that will not lie;

      For all shall be governed by a rude,

      Base, ignorant, and foolish multitude;

      The veriest lout of all shall be their judge,

      O horrible and dangerous deluge!

      Deluge I call it, and that for good reason,

      For this shall be omitted in no season;

      Nor shall the earth of this foul stir be free,

      Till

Скачать книгу