[55] Champ fleury, fol. 1 recto.
[56] Ibid., verso of title-page.
[57] [As Champ fleury is not among the works cited by French lexicographers to illustrate the historical development of the language, we search in vain for adequate explanation of some of the terms used by Tory therein. Littré defines as follows such of these varieties of letters as he includes in his dictionary: CADEAUX: Grandes lettres placées en têtes des actes ou des chapitres dans les manuscrits en écriture cursive.—FORME: Lettre de la belle écriture, des belles éditions, par opposition à la lettre cursive.—BÂTARDE: Écriture ordinairement penchée, à jambages pleins, à liaisons arrondies par le haut, et à tetes sans boucles.—GOFFES: Nom donné à une sorte de majuscules gothiques dans le commencement du XVI siècle. See, also, for some of these alphabets, Pantographia; Containing Accurate Copies of all the known Alphabets in the world. By Edmund Fry. London, 1799.]
[58] See his introduction to Palsgrave's Lesclaircissement de la langue françoise. See also Appendix [II].
[59] [Escumeurs de latin. Rabelais's word is escorcher, to flay.]
[60] One of the annotators of Rabelais (I do not now remember which one, but his name is of little consequence[62]) maintains that Tory intended to criticize in that epistle the author of Pantagruel, who had introduced him in his romance under the name of Raminagrobis. There is but one little flaw in this story, namely, that the dates are against it: Champ fleury antedates Pantagruel, by several years. This fact, to be sure, does not prove that Rabelais did not make Tory a character in his work; but what foundation is there, I ask, for attributing the character of Raminagrobis to Tory? Simply the assertion of one of those seventeenth-century scribblers of marginal notes who lived on the great authors of the sixteenth as rats live on the most valuable manuscripts—by nibbling at them. What possible connection is there between Raminagrobis, canon and poet, whom Rabelais represents as dying about 1546, and Tory, layman and prose writer, who died twelve years earlier? Does it not remind one of the famous key to Astrée, of which I had occasion to prove, in my monograph upon the d'Urfés, that not a word was true? Almost the same course has been pursued with reference to the Satire Menippée, which has in our own day been ascribed to persons who would be greatly surprised, and far from proud of their alleged work. See what I had to say on this subject in the Revue de la Province et de Paris of September 30, 1842.
[61] Champ fleury, 'Aux Lecteurs.'
[62] It was Pasquier, I think, who first gave currency to this fable; and his opinion is the less admissible because he did not even know Tory's name, but calls him 'Georges Toré.' See Baillet, Jugements des Savants, vol. i, and Génin's introduction to Palsgrave, p. 10, note 4.
[63] Champ fleury, 'Aux Lecteurs.'
[64] Folio, Venice, 1509; with 62 plates engraved on wood.