Francis Rabelais. 1495-1553.
I am just going to leap into the dark.[770:3]
Motteux's Life.
Let down the curtain: the farce is done.
Motteux's Life.
He left a paper sealed up, wherein were found three articles as his last will: "I owe much; I have nothing; I give the rest to the poor."
Motteux's Life.
One inch of joy surmounts of grief a span,
Because to laugh is proper to the man.
To the Reader.
[771]
To return to our wethers.[771:1]
Works. Book i. Chap. i. n. 2.
I drink no more than a sponge.
Works. Book i. Chap. v.
Appetite comes with eating, says Angeston.[771:2]
Works. Book i. Chap. v.
Thought the moon was made of green cheese.
Works. Book i. Chap. xi.
He always looked a given horse in the mouth.[771:3]
Works. Book i. Chap. xi.
By robbing Peter he paid Paul,[771:4]... and hoped to catch larks if ever the heavens should fall.[771:5]
Works. Book i. Chap. xi.
He laid him squat as a flounder.
Works. Book i. Chap. xxvii.
Send them home as merry as crickets.
Works. Book i. Chap. xxix.
Corn is the sinews of war.[771:6]
Works. Book i. Chap. xlvi.
How shall I be able to rule over others, that have not full power and command of myself?
Works. Book i. Chap. lii.
Subject to a kind of disease, which at that time they called lack of money.
Works. Book ii. Chap. xvi.
He did not care a button for it.
Works. Book ii. Chap. xvi.
How well I feathered my nest.
Works. Book ii. Chap. xvii.
So much is a man worth as he esteems himself.
Works. Book ii. Chap. xxix.
A good crier of green sauce.
Works. Book ii. Chap. xxxi.
Then I began to think that it is very true which is commonly said, that the one half of the world knoweth not how the other half liveth.
Works. Book ii. Chap. xxxii.
This flea which I have in mine ear.
Works. Book iii. Chap. xxxi.
You have there hit the nail on the head.[771:7]
Works. Book iii. Chap. xxxiv.
Above the pitch, out of tune, and off the hinges.
Works. Book iv. Chap. xix.
[772]
I 'll go his halves.
Works. Book iv. Chap. xxiii.
The Devil was sick,—the Devil a monk would be;
The Devil was well,—the devil a monk was he.
Works. Book iv. Chap. xxiv.
Do not believe what I tell you here any more than if it were some tale of a tub.
Works. Book iv. Chap. xxxviii.
I would have you call to mind the strength of the ancient giants, that undertook to lay the high mountain Pelion on the top of Ossa, and set among those the shady Olympus.[772:1]
Works. Book iv. Chap. xxxviii.
Which was performed to a T.[772:2]
Works. Book iv. Chap. xli.
He that has patience may compass anything.
Works. Book iv. Chap. xlviii.
We will take the good will for the deed.[772:3]
Works. Book iv. Chap. xlix.
You are Christians of the best edition, all picked and culled.
Works. Book iv. Chap. l.
Would you damn your precious soul?
Works. Book iv. Chap. liv.
Let us fly and save our bacon.
Works. Book iv. Chap. lv.
Needs must when the Devil drives.[772:4]
Works. Book iv. Chap. lvii.
Scampering as if the Devil drove them.
Works. Book iv. Chap. lxii.
He freshly and cheerfully asked him how a man should kill time.
Works. Book iv. Chap. lxii.
The belly has no ears, nor is it to be filled with fair words.[772:5]
Works. Book iv. Chap. lxii.
Whose cockloft is unfurnished.[772:6]
Works. The Author's Prologue to the Fifth Book.
Speak the truth and shame the Devil.[772:7]
Works. The Author's Prologue to the Fifth Book.
Plain as a nose in a man's face.[772:8]
Works. The Author's Prologue to the Fifth Book.
[773]
Like hearts of oak.[773:1]
Works. Prologue to the Fifth Book.
You shall never want rope enough.
Works. Prologue to the Fifth Book.
Looking as like... as one pea does like another.[773:2]
Works. Book v. Chapter ii.
Nothing is so dear and precious as time.[773:3]
Works. Book v. Chapter v.
And thereby hangs a tale.[773:4]
Works. Book v. Chapter iv.
It is meat, drink,[773:5] and cloth to us.
Works. Book v. Chapter vii.
And so on to the end of the chapter.
Works. Book v. Chapter x.
What is got over the Devil's back is spent under the belly.[773:6]
Works. Book v. Chapter xi.
We have here other fish to fry.[773:7]
Works. Book v. Chapter xii.
What cannot be cured must be endured.[773:8]
Works. Book v. Chapter xv.
Thought I to myself, we shall never come off scot-free.
Works. Book v. Chapter xv.
It is enough to fright you out of your seven senses.[773:9]
Works. Book v. Chapter xv.
Necessity has no law.[773:10]
Works. Book v. Chapter xv.
Panurge had no sooner heard this, but he was upon the high-rope.
Works. Book v. Chapter xviii.
We saw a knot of others, about a baker's dozen.
Works. Book v. Chapter xxii.
Others made a virtue of necessity.[773:11]
Works. Book v. Chapter xxii.
Spare your breath to cool your porridge.[773:12]
Works. Book v. Chapter xxviii.
I believe he would make three bites of a cherry.
Works. Book v. Chapter xxviii.
Footnotes
[770:3] Je m'en vay chercher un grand peut-estre.
[771:1] "Revenons à nos moutons,"—a proverb taken from the French farce of "Pierre Patelin," edition of 1762, p. 90.
[771:2] My appetite comes to me while eating.—Montaigne: Book iii. chap. ix. Of Vanity.
[771:3] See Heywood, page 11.
[771:4] See Heywood, page 14.
[771:5] See Heywood, page 11.
[771:6] See page 810.
[771:7] See Heywood, page 20.
[772:1] See Ovid, page 707.
[772:2] See Johnson, page 375.
[772:3] See Swift, page 292.
[772:4] See Heywood, page 18.
[772:5] See Plutarch, page 725.
[772:6] See Bacon, page 170.
[772:7] See Shakespeare, page 85.
[772:8] See Shakespeare, page 44.
[773:1] See Garrick, page 388.
[773:2] See Lyly, page 33.
[773:3] See Franklin, page 361. Also Diogenes Laertius, page 762.
[773:4] See Shakespeare, page 68.
[773:5] See Shakespeare, page 71.
[773:6] Isocrates was in the right to insinuate that what is got over the Devil's back is spent under his belly.—Le Sage: Gil Blas, book viii. chap. ix.
[773:7] I have other fish to fry.—Cervantes: Don Quixote, part ii. chap. xxxv.
[773:8] See Burton, page 190.
[773:9] See Scott, page 493.
[773:10] See Shakespeare, page 115.
[773:11] See Chaucer, page 3.
[773:12] See Plutarch, page 738.
[774]