RABELAIS 



RABELAIS 



woolly fur, and the so-called 

 Himalayan is merely a colour 

 variety produced by crossing a 

 silver-grey and a chinchilla. The 

 Dutch fancy rabbit is noted for 

 its small size. 



RABBIT FARMING. The flesh and 

 pelt of the rabbit are both of 

 value, and the considerable demand 

 in Great Britain is largely met by 

 importation, chiefly from Austra- 

 lasia. There is ample scope at 

 home for controlled production of 

 rabbits, either in properly managed 

 warrens or on rabbit farms. In 

 warrens most of the animals must 

 be killed off before the end of the 

 year, re-stocking in January or 

 February ; this enables the ground 

 to get clean. Tame rabbits should 

 not be introduced into the warren. 

 Hay is used in racks for winter 

 feeding, and can be supplemented 

 by a small amount of maize. Tur- 

 nips should be avoided. 



RABBIT SHOOTING. Under the 

 Ground Game Act the tenant 

 farmer may shoot rabbits on his 

 farm, although the sporting 

 rights are reserved to the land- 

 lord. The two modes of shooting 

 rabbits are by a special battue, or 

 taking them as a chance variety 

 of ground game when out pheasant 

 and partridge shooting. Beating 

 for rabbits in covers should be 

 accomplished by the beaters poking 

 them out : a rabbit will run from 

 the least prod with a stick, but if 

 struck may be beaten to death 

 before it will run. It is practically 

 impossible to drive them up-wind 

 to guns, their sense of smell being 

 so remarkably keen. In getting 

 rabbits out into the open for 

 shooting, the openings of their 

 burrows should be plentifully be- 

 sprinkled with gas-tar daily for 

 three or four days previous to the 

 shoot, when, owing to their dislike 

 of the smell of the gas-tar, they will 

 vacate their burrows and lie out 

 in the adjacent fields. Another 

 method widely used is to employ 

 ferrets to drive the rabbits from 

 their burrows. 



Rabelais, FRANCOIS (c. 1490-c. 

 1553). French author. Born at 

 Chinon in Touraine, where his 

 father was an apothecary, he was 

 educated for the Church, and about 

 1509 entered the Franciscan mon- 

 astery of Fontenay-le-Comte in 

 Poitou. But here his enthusiasm 

 for humanistic studies aroused the 

 hostility of his superiors, and in 

 1524 he obtained permission to 

 transfer himself to the less 

 austere order of Benedictines, in 

 which he remained till 1530, 

 when he abjured the ascetic life 

 altogether. 



Inspired by his passion for science, 

 he then took up the study of medi- 



Rabbit. Types o! familiar breeds. 



1. Silver. 2. Lop-eared. 3. Common 



wild rabbit. 4. White. 5. Giant 



cine, received his doctor's degree 

 at Montpellier in 1537, lectured, 

 edited a number of medical works, 

 and practised in the hospitals at 

 Lyons. In the meantime Rabe- 

 lais had been twice in Italy, in 

 1534 and 1536, in the suite of 

 Cardinal du Bellay, with whom he 

 again went to Rome in 1549. In 

 1546-47 he was town physician at 

 Metz, and from 1550-52 cure" of 

 Meudon. He removed to Paris in 

 1553 and died there, it is supposed, 

 shortly after his arrival. 



Rabelais' one great work in 

 viterature, produced at intervals 

 avuid his other avocations, is a 

 selfes of chronicles narrating the 

 adventures of two mythical giants 

 La Vie tres horrifique du grand 

 Gargantua, forming Book I, and 

 Pantagruel, Roy des Dipsodes, 



Francois Rabelais, one of the world's 

 great satirists 



From a painting in the Louvre 



avec ses Faicts et Prouesses Espou- 

 vantables, Books II-V ; though 

 the authenticity of Book V, which 

 was not published till twelve years 

 after his death, is uncertain. 

 Superficially viewed, these chroni- 

 cles are nothing but an immense, 

 rambling burlesque : roman d'aven- 

 tures, in which the author's amazing 

 humour runs riot amidst the 

 wildest extravagances and the 

 grossest indecencies. But Rabe- 

 lais was not only a great humorist ; 

 he was also one of the boldest and 

 most progressive thinkers of his 

 time ; and he deliberately adopted 

 his farcical machinery as the vehi- 

 cle of his opinions on many subjects 

 which it was then dangerous to 

 discuss in earnest. Even so, the 

 theologians came to perceive the 

 revolutionary potency of his teach- 

 ing, with the result that his fourth 

 book was condemned by the Sor- 

 bonne and prohibited by the Parle- 

 ment of Paris. 



Modern criticism is probably in- 

 clined to read too much system 

 into his philosophy ; but its main 

 drift is clear. It rests ultimately 

 upon the heretical belief in the 

 absolute goodness of nature and 

 what is natural, and as this belief 

 involved the principle of freedom 

 for life and thought, it brought 

 him into collision with both the 

 old and the new school of theology. 

 But though he did not spare the 

 Calvinists, his fiercest satire is di- 

 rected against medieval Catholi- 

 cism, and especially against its dog- 

 matic tryanny, the intellectual 



