Fran&edilois Rabelais 1490-1553 John Bartlett


1
I am just going to leap into the dark. 1
Motteux’s Life.
2
Let down the curtain: the farce is done.
Motteux’s Life.
3
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.
4
One inch of joy surmounts of grief a span, Because to laugh is proper to the man.
To the Reader.
5
To return to our wethers. 2
Works. Book i. Chap. i. n. 2.
6
I drink no more than a sponge.
Works. Book i. Chap. v.
7
Appetite comes with eating, says Angeston. 3
Works. Book i. Chap. v.
8
Thought the moon was made of green cheese.
Works. Book i. Chap. xi.
9
He always looked a given horse in the mouth. 4
Works. Book i. Chap. xi.
10
By robbing Peter he paid Paul, 5 … and hoped to catch larks if ever the heavens should fall. 6
Works. Book i. Chap. xi.



11
He laid him squat as a flounder.
Works. Book i. Chap. xxvii.
12
Send them home as merry as crickets.
Works. Book i. Chap. xxix.
13
Corn is the sinews of war. 7
Works. Book i. Chap. xlvi.
14
How shall I be able to rule over others, that have not full power and command of myself?
Works. Book i. Chap. lii.
15
Subject to a kind of disease, which at that time they called lack of money.
Works. Book ii. Chap. xvi.
16
He did not care a button for it.
Works. Book ii. Chap. xvi.
17
How well I feathered my nest.
Works. Book ii. Chap. xvii.
18
So much is a man worth as he esteems himself.
Works. Book ii. Chap. xxix.
19
A good crier of green sauce.
Works. Book ii. Chap. xxxi.
20
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.
21
This flea which I have in mine ear.
Works. Book iii. Chap. xxxi.
22
You have there hit the nail on the head. 8
Works. Book iii. Chap. xxxiv.
23
Above the pitch, out of tune, and off the hinges.
Works. Book iv. Chap. xix.
24
I ’ll go his halves.
Works. Book iv. Chap. xxiii.
25
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.
26
Do not believe what I tell you here any more than if it were some tale of a tub.
Works. Book iv. Chap. xxxviii.
27
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. 9
Works. Book iv. Chap. xxxviii.
28
Which was performed to a T. 10
Works. Book iv. Chap. xli.
29
He that has patience may compass anything.
Works. Book iv. Chap. xlviii.
30
We will take the good will for the deed. 11
Works. Book iv. Chap. xlix.
31
You are Christians of the best edition, all picked and culled.
Works. Book iv. Chap. l.
32
Would you damn your precious soul?
Works. Book iv. Chap. liv.
33
Let us fly and save our bacon.
Works. Book iv. Chap. lv.
34
Needs must when the Devil drives. 12
Works. Book iv. Chap. lvii.
35
Scampering as if the Devil drove them.
Works. Book iv. Chap. lxii.
36
He freshly and cheerfully asked him how a man should kill time.
Works. Book iv. Chap. lxii.
37
The belly has no ears, nor is it to be filled with fair words. 13
Works. Book iv. Chap. lxii.
38
Whose cockloft is unfurnished. 14
Works. The Author’s Prologue to the Fifth Book.
39
Speak the truth and shame the Devil. 15
Works. The Author’s Prologue to the Fifth Book.
40
Plain as a nose in a man’s face. 16
Works. The Author’s Prologue to the Fifth Book.
41
Like hearts of oak. 17
Works. The Author’s Prologue to the Fifth Book.
42
You shall never want rope enough.
Works. The Author’s Prologue to the Fifth Book.
43
Looking as like … as one pea does like another. 18
Works. Book v. Chap. ii.
44
Nothing is so dear and precious as time. 19
Works. Book v. Chap. v.
45
And thereby hangs a tale. 20
Works. Book v. Chap. iv.
46
It is meat, drink, 21 and cloth to us.
Works. Book v. Chap. vii.
47
And so on to the end of the chapter.
Works. Book v. Chap. x.
48
What is got over the Devil’s back is spent under the belly. 22
Works. Book v. Chap. xi.
49
We have here other fish to fry. 23
Works. Book v. Chap. xii.
50
What cannot be cured must be endured. 24
Works. Book v. Chap. xv.
51
Thought I to myself, we shall never come off scot-free.
Works. Book v. Chap. xv.
52
It is enough to fright you out of your seven senses. 25
Works. Book v. Chap. xv.
53
Necessity has no law. 26
Works. Book v. Chap. xv.
54
Panurge had no sooner heard this, but he was upon the high-rope.
Works. Book v. Chap. xviii.
55
We saw a knot of others, about a baker’s dozen.
Works. Book v. Chap. xxii.
56
Others made a virtue of necessity. 27
Works. Book v. Chap. xxii.
57
Spare your breath to cool your porridge. 28
Works. Book v. Chap. xxviii.
58
I believe he would make three bites of a cherry.
Works. Book v. Chap. xxviii.

Note 1.
Je m’en vay chercher un grand peut-estre. [back]

Note 2.
”Revenons à nos moutons,”—a proverb taken from the French farce of “Pierre Patelin,” edition of 1762, p. 90. [back]

Note 3.
My appetite comes to me while eating.—Montaigne: Book iii. chap. ix. Of Vanity. [back]

Note 4.
See Heywood, Quotation 33. [back]

Note 5.
See Heywood, Quotation 62. [back]

Note 6.
See Heywood, Quotation 23. [back]

Note 7.
See Quotation 24. [back]

Note 8.
See Heywood, Quotation 132. [back]

Note 9.
See Ovid, Quotation 3. [back]

Note 10.
See Johnson, Quotation 103. [back]

Note 11.
See Swift, Quotation 40. [back]

Note 12.
See Heywood, Quotation 114. [back]

Note 13.
See Plutarch, Quotation 22. [back]

Note 14.
See Bacon, Quotation 53. [back]

Note 15.
See Shakespeare, King Henry IV. Part I, Quotation 45. [back]

Note 16.
See Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Quotation 5. [back]

Note 17.
See Garrick, Quotation 6. [back]

Note 18.
See Lyly, Quotation 16. [back]

Note 19.
See Franklin, Quotation 16. Also Diogenes Laertius, Quotation 59. [back]

Note 20.
See Shakespeare, As You Like It, Quotation 26. [back]

Note 21.
See Shakespeare, As You Like It, Quotation 64. [back]

Note 22.
Isocrates was in the right to insinuate that what is got over the Devil’s back is spent under his belly.—Alain René Le Sage: Gil Blas, book viii. chap. ix. [back]

Note 23.
I have other fish to fry.—Cervantes: Don Quixote, part ii. chap. xxxv. [back]

Note 24.
See Burton, Quotation 56. [back]

Note 25.
See Scott, Quotation 62. [back]

Note 26.
See Shakespeare, Julius Cæsar, Quotation 63. [back]

Note 27.
See Chaucer, Quotation 22. [back]

Note 28.
See Plutarch, Quotation 139. [back]

Contents -AUTHOR INDEX -CONCORDANCE INDEX -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD