518 Memoirs and Writings of Rabelais. [Nows; 
in mirth, and the poor judge. was, only, laughed at, for, his, pains,’*., 
« When a man,” adds Mr. Ozell commenting upon this anecdote,“ has. 
once been very famous for jests and merry adventures, he is made ‘to, 
adopt, all the jests. that want a father, and many, times, such as) are, 
unworthy of him.” This is a truth which, our, own, experience Can, 
confirm, and may perhaps apply to the above anecdote; the, circum: . 
stances, however, respecting the death of Rabelais, are throughout, SO. 
characteristic, that although they rest on no sounder authority, than, the | 
foregoing tale, we do not hesitate one instant in giving credence. to. 
them. It seems that in his seventieth year he was seized witha vertigo, 
at his residence near Paris (some say from an amiable weakness in, 
favour of tippling), and having been carried senseless to bed, was visited 
shortly afterwards by a page of the Cardinal Du Bellay, to whose 
inquiries after his health he replied, « Go and tell your master that 
je men vais chercher un grand Peut-étre (we have given it in the original 
French), il est au nid de la pie. Early next day. the same messenger 
came with fresh inquiries from the Cardinal: but. finding . Rabelais 
extended apparently lifeless on the bed, with a lamp, burnt out beside | 
him, and Lucian’s Dialogues under his pillow, he was. softly quitting 
the room, when the dying wit raised himself up, turned with a smile 
towards the page, and desired him to draw the curtains, for the farce of 
life wasended. Previously however to this, we should obserye, that. he 
had called for his domino (a sort of clerical hood), remarking to the. 
servant who brought it, that he would not die without it for the world,— 
“for is it not written,” he added, “ beati qui in domino, moriuntur ?”’ 
A monk, Pierre de St. Ronald, disputing this anecdote, relates instead, 
that a few hours before his death Rabelais despatched, a.messenger fora; 
notary, in whose presence he drew up_a formally attested will,..which,., 
when opened after his decease, was found to contain these, satisfactory; 
bequests; “J owe much; I have got nothing; I give the, rest, to; the) 
poor.” The same monk adds, that the morning of. his death Rahelais) 
ordered himself to be brought to a favourite street,; called La Rue des, 
Jardins, in Saint Paul’s parish at Paris, where he expired,. in, 1553,, 
having just completed his seventy-first year. It,is not to, be, supposed) 
that the death of so great a man would pass, unnoticed, and accordingly, 
the usual allowance of epitaphs were inflicted on his memory,, and among 
others one by the noted Ronsard, which has the singular merit of super- 
lative stupidity. Doctor Trapp’s Virgil is nothing to it! 
The writings of Rabelais, like his memoirs, are replete with whim; 
but unlike them, are full, learned, and characteristic. In his style of 
humour he seems to have taken Lucian for his. model; but while the 
mind of the Greek satirist is concentrated on one point, the ridicule of 
polytheism—that of Rabelais, excursive and unlimited in its variety, 
* We have given this anecdote in the words of Mr. Ozell—in the first place, be- 
cause the old French in which it is related is almost unintelligible ; and secondly, 
because he seems to have compared and sifted two conflicting versions of the same; 
story, with yery considerable address. While speaking of this gentleman we may just, 
add, that as a modifier of Sir Thomas Urwhart’s translation of the earlier books. of ; 
Gargantua, and translator of Pantagruel’s Voyage to the Holy Bottle, he evinces great, 
diligence, but little humour. In the fourth volume, in that inimitable chapter upon, 
debtors, he throughout one’ paragraph not only perverts, but literally stultities his; 
author ; thus compelling Rabelais—to use the expressive language of Sir John Falstaff, 
— to look an exceeding ass.” : parent % ahiza 
DIId 
