Note 258 — Chapter VII

Book iii. chap 13. Fontenay le Comte in Lower Poitou and Niort were noted for their busy yearly fairs. There can be doubt that the above passage was suggested to Rabelais by what St Jerome records of the experience of St Hilarion in the desert. "Sic attentuatus," he says, "[jejunio et vigiliis], et in tantum exeto corpore, ut ossibus vix haereret, quadam nocte cœpit infantum audire vagitus, balatus pecorum, mugitus boum, planctum quasi mulierum, leonum rugitus, murmur exercitus, et prorsus variarum portenta vocum," etc. (Vita Sancti Hilarionis). In Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy (iii. 4. 1. 2) there is the following reference to the same passage: "Monks, Anachorites, and the like, after much emptiness become melancholy, vertiginous, they think they hear strange noises, confer with Hob-goblins, Devils.... Hilarion, as Hierome reports in his life, and Athanasius of Antonius, was so bare with fasting, that the skin did scarce stick to the bones; for want of vapours (sic) he could not sleep, and for want of sleep became idle-headed, heard every night infants cry, Oxen low, Wolves howl, Lions roar (as he thought), clattering of chains, strange voices, and the like illusions of Devils." It is probable also that Rabelais had read the following passage in the Life of Geta, by Ælius Spartianus (c. A.D. 317): "Familiare illi fuit has quæstiones grammaticis proponere, ut dicerent, singula animalia quomodo vocem emitterent, velut, Agni balant, porcelli grumniunt, palumbes minurriunt, ursi saeviunt, leones rugiunt, leopardi rictant, elephanti barriunt, ranæ coaxant, equi hinniunt, asini rudunt, tauri mugiunt, easque de veteribus approbare." Nor is it likely that Rabelais was unacquainted with the verses in Teofilo Folengo's (1491-1544) Merlini Cocaii Macaronicon, which run thus:

[259] In the introduction to this volume Motteux says that Sir Thomas Urquhart was "a learned physician." It is difficult to understand what could have given rise to such a statement. Sir Thomas had many projects for the benefit of the human race, but there is no evidence of his ever having cherished that of combating disease. One cannot help thinking of the magniloquent terms in which he would have extolled his remedies, if the fates had led him to the concoction of patent medicines. It is doubtful, however, whether he would have had what is technically known as "a good bed-side manner." It is quite possible that Motteux simply meant that Sir Thomas was well acquainted with medical science, and not that he was a physician by profession. Yet his words have often been understood as asserting the latter. Thus we find the erroneous statement in Granger's Biographical Dictionary, the Amsterdam (1741) edition of Rabelais, and Sir John Hawkins' Life of Johnson, p. 294.

[260] Both Ozell and Motteux figure in Pope's Dunciad, in i. 296, and ii. 412, respectively.