Page:Biographical and critical studies by James Thomson ("B.V.").djvu/39

 RABELAIS 23 delivering themselves on the great question whether Panurge ought to marry or not. With all the fun these are not mere caricatures, but admirable intel- lectual studies by the greatest and best-informed intellect of the age. He introduces it by some lines to the spirit of Marguerite of Navarre, although she did not die until two years later. In the Prologue he challenges his enemies with infinite scorn : " Back with you, bigots ! To your sheep, mastiffs ! Out of this, hypocrites, in the devil's name, hay ! Are you still there? I renounce my part of Papimanie if I grip you. Grr, grrr, grrrrrr." There was a furious outcry against him from the monks and the theo- logians. Council was held at the Sorbonne, the book was strictly examined, and enough was found in it to condemn the author twenty times over. Especially in chapters xxii. and xxiii., the word asne {ane), "a jackass," was found three times for asme {dme), " soul." The first passage reads : " May his jackass go to thirty thousand basketfuls of devils;" the second : " May his jackass go lo thirty thousand cartloads of devils ; " the third : " At any rate, if he loses body and life, let him not damn his jackass." Rabelais, in the Epistle to Monseigneur Odet, Cardinal de Chastillon, dated January 1552, pre- fixed to the fourth book, coolly declares that the one word was thus put for the other three times running through the fault and negligence of the printers ! Many an author's burden has been re- jected on that long-suffering class, but never more audaciously than in this instance. As the book was protected by the royal authority, the Sorbonne could not impeach it without the permission of the king,