Renaissance literary theory and practice

by Charles Sears Baldwin

... ces marauds de sophistes, sorbillans, sorbonagres, sorbinigenes, sorbonicoles, sorboniformes, sorbonisecques, niborcisans (II. xviii).

Thus he prolongs a parody of legal citations.

Ayant bien veu, reveu, leu, releu, paperassé, et feuilleté les complainctes, adjournemens, comparitions, commissions, informations, avant procedés, productions, allegations, intenditz, contredits, requestes, enquestes, repliques, dupliques, tripliques, escritures, reproches, griefz, salvations, recollements, confrontations, acarations, libelles, apostoles, lettres royaulx, compulsoires, declinatoires, anticipatoires, evocations, envoyz, renvoyz, conclusions, fins de non proceder, apoinctemens, reliefz, confessions, exploictz, et autres telles dragées et espiceries d’une part et d’autre, comme doibt faire le bon juge selon ce qu’en a not. spec. de ordinario § 3 et tit. de offic. omn. jud. § fin. et de rescript. praesentat., § 1 (III. xxxix).

Thus the resolution of Diogenes to do his part in the defense of Corinth lets Rabelais stop to amplify the commonplaces of a siege.

When Philip threatened siege, the Corinthians prepared for defense. Some from the fields to the fortresses brought household goods, cattle, wine, food, and necessary munitions. Others repaired walls, raised bastions ... [and so through a series of 25 predicates]. Some polished corselets [and so through another catalogue of particulars]. Diogenes girt his loins, rolled up his sleeves, gave his manuscripts to the charge of an old friend [and so through another series of details].... “Icy beuvant je delibere, je discours, je resouldz et concluds. Aprés l’epilogue je ris, j’escris, je compose, je boy. Ennius beuvant escrivoit, escrivant beuvoit. Eschylus (si à Plutarche foy avez in Symposiacis) beuvoit composant, beauvant composait. Homere jamais n’escrivit à jeun. Caton jamais n’escrivit qu’aprés boire.” Thus the resolution gives occasion for eight pages. (Prologue to Tiers Livre.) As here, the amplification is often oratorical.

This various diffuseness, parody of Latinizing, legal iteration, oratorical amplitude, is gift of gab, oral expansiveness, passion for words; it is satire; and ultimately it is search for a reading public. Taking his cue from the almanacs and giant stories, Rabelais was exploiting the grotesque. He was clever enough to see that he could amuse not only the bon bourgeois who bought almanacs, but also those who had some pretensions to studies. Both, as Ariosto knew, found relaxation in the grotesque. The latter would appreciate technical jargon more; but the former would catch enough of its satire and get some amusement from its very strangeness. Both he could feed also with the marvels of voyages. For the grotesque is an adult fairyland.

Rabelais takes us in and out of it, back and forth. Though the work is largely narrative, it is not progressive story. The persons, often vividly realized at a given moment, are not advancing to a destined issue. There is much description, much discussion; and each has its effect rather by itself than in a reasoned sequence. Thus the disgusting story of the lady haunted by dogs, one of the most notorious of his incidental nouvelles, is told quite as much for its own shock as for any turn it gives to the larger story.

On the whole, Rabelais’ writing is conte, though usually involving some exposition in aim and some actual comment. The series of exempla and opinions as to whether Panurge shall marry (III. xxi, seq.) reaches neither a decision on the marriage nor a conclusion of character. We find ourselves discussing the mendicant friars, listening to a discourse on devils, and ending on sheer lore about the herb Pantagruelion (III. xlix, seq.). All the while the concreteness of the rendering is vivid in contrast to the conventional generalities of the collections of tales. The dialogue, instead of being exchange of orations, sometimes flashes with narrative interaction. Rabelais takes us traveling, as it were, through many excitements with a group of voluble grotesques whose ideas are not developed in sequences of paragraphs, nor their habits in sequences of chapters. He opened both novel and essay without achieving the form of either. For he was moving toward that other kind of story and discussion which ripened in journalism. Integration and continuity are less important to attract readers than abundance and animation. Instead of making a point, he often hovers around it with many suggestions. Instead of giving a scene distinct significance to lead into the next, he plays it with many overtones. Unsystematic as his various abundance is certainly, and sometimes confusing, it must be recognized as creative. Rabelais is not content merely to rehearse, paraphrase, or decorate. Charged with various lore, his work is never second-hand. What he seizes he animates.

The satire of Rabelais, as distinct from his more descriptive ridicule, is directed oftenest against pedantry. The idea that he satirizes the Middle Age as an apostle of Renaissance enlightenment extends a dubious contrast beyond the evidence. For Rabelais is in some aspects medieval. He was a wandering scholar, a vagans; he was something of a goliard; and in the way of Godescalc he was a mauvais clerc. His satire on monks and friars is medieval literary stock. Indeed, it is much less attack, still less reform, than excitement. Against medieval education he does not urge Renaissance enlightenment except in irony.