Page:Biographical and critical studies by James Thomson ("B.V.").djvu/24

 8 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES tion with a Greek MS. of his own. He had his amusements with, his fellow-bachelors. In "Panta- gruel " (iii., xxxiv.), Panurge says to Carpalim : " I have not seen you since you played at Montpellier, with our old friends, Anthony Saporta, Guy Bourg- nier, Balthazar Noyer, Tolet, John Quentin, Francis Robinet, John Perdrier, and Francis Rabelais, the moral comedy of him who married a dumb wife." And Epistemon having sketched the plot, which was worked up by Moliere in his Medecin Malgre Lui, adds : " I never laughed so much in my life as at that buffoonery" {pa'elinage, from the celebrated farce of Patelin, to which Rabelais frequently alludes). Some of those who acted with him became among the most eminent doctors of the university. Though but a bachelor, he was selected to plead with Chan- cellor Duprat for the privileges of Montpellier, which had been restricted. Arriving at Paris, he could not obtain an audience of the great man. Clothing him- self in a long green gown and an Armenian bonnet, with spectacles attached to it, and with a huge ink- stand at his girdle, he marched solemnly up and down in front of the Chancellor's residence. A crowd soon gathered, and the attention of Duprat was called to the outlandish masquerader. One of the household was sent to ask him who he was, and he answered, " I am the flayer of calves." A page was sent out to ask him what brought him to Paris ; he replied in Latin. One of the gentlemen who knew I^tin being brought, Rabelais answered him in Greek ; and so with one after another, in Spanish, Italian, German, English, Hebrew, &c., just as he has made Panurge do in " Pantagruel," ii- 9- At length the Chancellor