Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-12-17
RABELAIS.
A New Test for the Works of One oil
the Greatest Men France Has Pro-
duced, to Whose Wit and
Satire, Interpenetrated with Scorn, Even
the Lurid Imagination Of Swift
Can't Hold the Candle.

As we approach the fourth centenary OF
the birth Of Francois Rabelais, says the
| London Teleqraph, the world seems TO be
| awakening with new zsst TO consciousness
| that one of the most extraordinary men ever
born first saw the light at ChinoD, 10 the
province of Touraine, in l843. Recently, for
| instance the sale of portion of the Sunder-
| land library has brought several superb
copies of the first editions of Rabelais's works
| into the market, which were knocked down
| at very high figures to Mr.. Quaritcb,
] although far oyertopped in price by the
| splendid Petrarch, enriched with Botticelli's
| engrayines. which fell to the same
spirited and discriminating purchaser for
1869. The prevalence of Rabelais worship
has again been demonstrated by the estab-
| lishment in this metropolis of the FIRST club
ever formed by Englishmen 10 honor OF
Notwithstanding compliment OF
which neither Moliere, the prince OF come
dians, Pascal, the schief of speculative phil
osophers, Voltaire, the first of Knockers, nor
Rousseau, the foremost of sophists, was
deemed worthy. Yet the four great French
men Just named attracted in their day far
larger circles of English admirers than the
strange and incomprehensible character
whose 400th birthday will be celebrated next
year. For Francois Rabelais it will always
be reserved TO enjoy in his own country, no
less than among foreign countries, aaedience
ft, though few" Against thousand English
readers who reyel in the wit of Moliere, and
relish the refined and subacid innuendos of
Voltaire, il can hardly be expected that there
will be more than one or two to whom The
History OF Gdrgdntstd and PdntaaTuet will be
household word. To this hour, Rabelais is
as inscrutable Ito the general as the mys-
terious character of Cromwell; and while TO
| some his works appear to be unintelligible
rh psodIes or collections of obscenities and
| impieties, there are others who-wisely, as
we think-regard him, like Homer, an
| inexhaustible source of learning, wisdom,
humor and knowledge. "If thou would's
| view one more than man and less" wrote
Lord Macsulay to his father, IN 1926,
| '-Made up of mean and great, of foul
| and fair, stop here and weep and laugh;
and curse and bless. and spurn and
| worship-for thou seest Voltaire. In very
| wantonness OF childish mirlh he pulled
bastiles and thrones and shrines away; in
suited heaven and liberated earth. Was it
| for good or evil? Vino ehall sayw Far
more difficult were it 10 determine how much
of the wsnlon raillery of Rabelais at the
| expense OF priests was inspired from heaven,
or whether, as the members of tLat sacred
| conEraernity at which his keen shafts were
| aimed have maintained ever since his death,
the inspiration did not come from a far diff
ferent qusiter. That Rsbelais hated monks
| it is not necessary to explain, but the ques-
ton at once arises, "In the fifteenth century,
did not monks and their superiors justly
deserve 10 be hated?"
Francis Rabelais Is believed by Alexander
Chalmers 10 have been born in 1888, although,
according to some-including, ii we mistake
not, Mr.. Walker Bssant, his latest biographer
his birth took place Two or three years
earlier. He was the son of an apothecary
at ChlnoD, in Touraine, and was bred up
in convent OF Franciscan friars in Poitoux-
the Convent of Fontenay le- Comte. The
strong inclination for literature and science
betrayed by him from the very outset of his
career led him far to outslrip the bounds of
learning prescribed for ecclesiastics in times
when "the Church OF Rome dreaded a great
scholar more, in Sir ames Stephens pungeut
words, Shan acsrtain parsonage who shall be
nameess breads holy water" The uncommon
capacity and thirst for knowledge exhibited
by Rabelais soon exposed him TO the jsal-
ousy and suspicion of his brethren. "Hence"
says one OF his many biographers, she was
envied by some, while others, through ig-
norance, thought him a conjurer." All,
however, hated and abused him, aud the
more SO when he took to studying Greek,
language of which, in the fifteenth century,
the strangeness and novelty caused it 10 be
regarded not only as barbarous but as anti
Christian. A Greek epIstle from Budieus to
Rabelais is still extsnt, in which the
latter's knowledge of that tongue is
highly commended, while the stupidity
and malice of the friars who Knocked him
are held up to scorn. Having endured
their prosecutions for a while, Rabelais OBJ
tanned permission from Pope Clement VII
to leave the Order Of ST. Francis, and TO take
the habit of Benedicine monk. His new
society give him no more satisfaction than
the old. Forswearing the ecclesiastical habit
altogether, he assumed that worn by secular
priests, and bearing what resembled the garb
of an ordinary man of the world, he ac-
CURED, according to his reverend critics, tie
skeptical and hooking tone which has char
acterlzed French civilians from that day to
this, and found perhaps lis less offensive ex.
ponent in 'old Montague" In his rambles
to and fro about France, which furnished
the materials employed by him SO deity in
his Gelineation of Panlagruel, he gravitated
to Montpelier, where he entered the univer-
siiy and was enabled to render it a
signal service. At that moment The
University of Montpelier was more
celebrated for the degrees in physics
conferred by it than any of It's learned sis
ters throughout the length and breadth of
France. Falling under the displeasure of
Chancellor du Pfat, the famous seat of
physical research at Montpelier was sud
denly deprived of its privileges, including
that oil giving diplomas and comforting de-
grees. In order to obtain restitution of their
academic rights, the president and fellows
OF Montpelier University dispatched "their
new brother" Francois Rabelais, to Paris;
nor can more incontestible proof OF his
tact, discretion and charm be given than
that, despite the anger of Oh sncellor du Pratt,
he was so fascinated by the manners and
surprised by the accomplishments OF Rabelais
that gladly, without delay, he granted to
him all he had solicited.
The most important event of Rabelais's life
was, however, his visit TO Lyons in 1882.
During the FIRST half OF the sixteenth century
the ancient city of Lyons was, as Mr.. Waller
Besant reminds as, what Bordeaux had been
in the fourth century, and Edinburgh was IN
the eighteenth. Ii was the most conspicuous
center of intellectual lite that Europe then
contained, and much OF its fame was derived
from the great printer Gryphe, who had
there set up his workshop. From this cele-
brated establishment issued in 1850 that
edition of the Latin Bible which seven in
an age when printers' readers were scholars"
was remarkable for the exceptionable
scarcity of Its errors and the msgnifcence
OF its type. From the press of Gryphe
came also the great Commemorate LIN
guoe Latino, the work of that distin-
guished scholar and skeptic Etienne Dolet,
who at the age of twenty bad ruined his
entire career By lampooning the ecelesiasties
of Toulouse. Dolet was about twenty seven
years younger than Rabelais, and TO elerics
of all ages both seemed tarred with the same
atheistical brush. 1u point of fact they
were not Atheists at all. To them, asfp the
scholars of Italy two generations befo1e, the
Christian religion meant the Roman ritual
and the Roman dicipline, and for both they
had au unmitigated aversion, not unmingled
with contempt II the Church could but
have let Dolet alone he would have gained,
reader for Gryphe, such fame as the great
scholars connected with the Atdine Press al
Florence still enjoy. Around the famous
printer of Lyons was gathered, when
Rabelais made his acquaintance and
requested him TO publish the first
book ever put forth by the pen which has
rendered Gdrgdntud, PaEure and Ianto-
Cruel immortal, society of poets and schol-
airs which still lives under the name oil LA
Societe Angelique." The society in question
was the first, or very nearly the first, literary
club established in France, and to this day
The unhappy fate of IFS two most illustrious
scholars-Etienne Dolet and Bonaveniure
Desperiers-is held up by bigots as warn
ing 10 those sons who presume to offend that
unforgiving mother, the Church OF Rome:
For seventeen years "the Church waited and
watched for her opportunity" and then she
handed Dolet over TO be dealt with by
the secular arm. He was Imprisoned,
tortured by rack, dungeon and sns-
nense. and finally burned, Desperiers, hav-