Et dessus leur renom la Parque n'aura lieu.
THE EPITAPH ON RABELAIS.
Seven years after Rabelais died, Ronsard wrote this off-hand. I give it, not for its value, but because it connects these two great names. The man who wrote it had seen that large and honorable mouth worshipping wine: he had reverenced that head of laughter which has corrected all our philosophy. It would be a shame to pass such a name as Ronsard's signed to an epitaph on such a work as that of Rabelais, poetry or no poetry.
Ronsard also from a tower at Meudon used to creep out at night and drink with that fellow-priest, vicar of the Parish, Rabelais: a greater man than he.
By a memory separate from the rest of his verse, Ronsard was moved to write this Rabelaisian thing. For he had seen him "full length upon the grass and singing so."
There is no need of notes, for these great names of Gargantua, Panurge and Friar John are household to every honest man.
THE EPITAPH ON RABELAIS.
Si d'un mort qui pourri repose
Nature engendre quelque chose,
Et si la génération