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Briefly about the main characters. Literary heroes. Gargantua, Pantagruel and Panurge

06.04.2019

Meaning of the word GARGANTUA in Literary Encyclopedia

GARGANTUA

(French Gargantua: “que grand tu as” - lit., “well, what a hefty throat you have”) - one of the main characters in the novel by F. Rabelais “Gargantua and Pantagruel”, to which the first of five books published is entirely dedicated in 1534. The prototype of Rabelais's hero is the character of the same name, the so-called. folk book"Great and invaluable chronicles of the great and enormous giant Gargantua." In the image of G. Rabelais, for the first time in literature, creates a portrait of a kind and wise giant, the ideal ruler of the country of Utopia, combining the fantastic power of nature and the moral height of man. He is the son of the giant Grangousier and the giantess Gargamella. Having spent eleven months in his mother's womb, G. was born through her left ear. The humanist teacher Panocrates teaches G. not only various sciences and arts, but also all kinds of crafts. And then he is sent to complete his education in Paris, where he, angry at the annoying Parisians, drowned “two hundred sixty thousand four hundred and eighteen people, not counting women and children” in his urine and removed the bells from all the city churches. Then G. returns home to repel the attack of King Picrohol, who treacherously invaded the possessions of Grangousier. During the war, he commits various - both funny and heroic - acts. It was G. who founded the famous Thelema monastery, the charter of which reads: “Do what you want.” G. is most famous for his letter to his son Pantagruel, in which he puts human soul higher than the body, because the latter only reproduces itself, but is not capable of improving. Thus, G. Rabelais puts into the mouth the humanistic idea of the progressive development of human society and Man himself. (lit. heroes)

Literary encyclopedia. 2012

See also interpretations, synonyms, meanings of the word and what GARGANTUA is in Russian in dictionaries, encyclopedias and reference books:

GARGANTUA in Lopatin’s Dictionary of the Russian Language:
Gargantua, uncl., ...
GARGANTUA in the Spelling Dictionary:
gargantua, uncl., ...
CARNIVAL in the Dictionary of Postmodernism.
REVIVAL
Renaissance (Renaissance) is a period in cultural and ideological development countries of Western and Central Europe (in Italy 14-16 centuries, in others ...
REVIVAL in the Character Reference Book and places of worship Greek mythology:
REVIVAL (Renaissance) period in the cultural and ideological development of the countries of Western and Central Europe (in Italy 14-16 centuries, in other countries - ...
STRONG
Initially, the powers were the spirits of nature, demons of fertility - similar to Satyrs, however, starting from the 6th century. BC. they began to portray strong...
OVIDY in the Dictionary-Reference Book of Who's Who in the Ancient World:
Naso Publius (43 BC - ca. 18 AD) Roman poet. Ovid was a prominent figure in Roman society until the 8th...
RABLAIS in the Lexicon of Sex:
Francois (1494-1553), French. humanist writer. The five-volume novel “Gargantua and Pantagruel” (1532) is an encyclopedic monument of Renaissance culture, reflecting the titanically sensual character of the era, ...
PANURG in the Literary Encyclopedia:
(French Panurge;) - rogue, cunning, trickster) - central character the novel by F. Rabelais “Gargantua and Pantagruel”, to which the third book is entirely devoted...
PANTAGRUEL in the Literary Encyclopedia:
(French Pantagruel - lit., “all-thirsty”) - one of the main characters of the novel by F. Rabelais “Gargantua and Pantagruel”, the central actor second (1533), ...
COLA BRUNION in the Literary Encyclopedia:
(French Colar Breugnon) - the hero of R. Rolland’s novel “Cola Breugnon (The Smoking Room Lives)” (c. 1913). The writer considered his hero the embodiment of the “Gallic spirit”...
FISHART in the Literary Encyclopedia:
Johann was a German poet and satirist of the Reformation era. R. in Strasbourg. Studied...
NOVEL in the Literary Encyclopedia:
great epic form, the most typical genre of bourgeois society. HISTORY OF THE TERM. - Name "R." arose in the Middle Ages and originally belonged to...
RENAISSANCE in the Literary Encyclopedia:
— Renaissance is a word, in its special sense, first put into circulation by Giorgio Vasari in Lives of Artists. ...
RABLAIS in the Literary Encyclopedia:
Francois - famous writer, largest representative humanism in France. Born in the vicinity of Chinon (in Touraine) in a family...
BONFIRE in the Literary Encyclopedia:
Charles Henri, de - Belgian writer. R. in Munich, in the family of the manager of the affairs of the papal nuncio. Early...
BOOK in the Literary Encyclopedia:
from a technical and production point of view, it is a collection of handwritten or printed sheets united by one cover or binding. Usually the term is attached only to...
CARICATURE in the Literary Encyclopedia.
TITLE in the Literary Encyclopedia:
definition of the content of the literary work, usually placed in front of the last one. The presence of Z. for a work is not always required; in lyric poetry for example. They …
EUPHEMISM OR EUPHEMISM in the Literary Encyclopedia:
[Greek - "prudence"] - replacing words considered rude or "indecent" by using descriptive expressions, foreign words or meaningless consonances (“inexpressible” instead of ...
DON QUIXOTE in the Literary Encyclopedia:
the central image of the novel “The Cunning Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha” (Hingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha) Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra...
GROTESQUE in the Literary Encyclopedia:
ORIGIN OF THE TERM. — The term G. is borrowed from painting. This was the name of the ancient wall painting, which was found in the “grottoes” (grotte) ...
RABLAIS in the Pedagogical Encyclopedic Dictionary:
(Rabelais) Francois (c. 1494-1553), French humanist writer. From 1527 he led the life of a traveling scientist; studied ancient languages, archeology, medicine, etc. ...

French literature

Victor Eremin

Gargantua, Pantagruel and Panurge

Let's start with a warning. At one time, our wonderful actor and director R.A. Bykov* told the following story. In the film by A.A. Tarkovsky's "The Passion of Andrei" ("Andrei Rublev") Bykov played the role of a buffoon. To make it more believable, we decided to sing authentic buffoon choruses of the 15th century, fortunately the texts of those have been preserved. When the filmmakers got into a special storage facility and were given an ancient manuscript with special precautions, they were amazed - the choruses consisted almost entirely of profanity.

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* Rolan Antonovich Bykov (1929-1998) - an outstanding Soviet actor and film director, creator of such famous films for children, such as “Aibolit-66”, “Car, violin and dog Blob”, “Scarecrow” and others.

- What were you waiting for? — the specialist who supervised the filmmakers was offended. — What else could have amused the audience of those times?

Another example. France XVII c., the era of the Iron Mask and Angelica - the Marquise of Angels. Favorite address of the Sun King Louis XIV to his favorites it was tender: “My turd!”

Now imagine the vocabulary of the French court during the times of Queen Margot and the last Valois, when the most fashionable ladies' fragrance was cologne like the Soviet "Chypre", and at royal balls the only latrine for ladies and gentlemen was the spacious courtyard of the Louvre, where carriages with coachmen and footmen were located at the same time , maids and other servants.

Why such advance notice? Moreover, the great work of Francois Rabelais “Gargantua and Pantagruel” is a largely physiological work, created on the basis folk tradition and in full accordance with the mores of the French common people of the 16th century. Therefore, any accusations against the author of immorality and turning one’s nose up at the foul-smelling stories of the book, to put it mildly, are not smart and unfounded. How else could Rabelais be truthful with the reader in times of unconcealed bodily nature? In the words of William Shakespeare's 130th sonnet:

And the body smells like the body smells,
Not like a violet's delicate petal*.
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* Shakespeare's sonnets translated by S. Marshak. M.: Soviet writer, 1955.

Francois Rabelais

Little reliable information has been preserved about the life of François Rabelais. We don't even know exactly when he was born. According to indirect data, it is assumed that in 1494 in Chinon. Francois was youngest son petty court official Antoine Rabelais, who inherited the noble title and estates from his parents. According to the traditions of that time, the youngest child in the family was prepared to serve God. In 1510, Rabelais entered the Franciscan (another name is Cordilleran) monastery in Fontenay-Leconte and received priestly rank.

A young man with an inquisitive mind, Francois chose to devote himself to science, studied Latin, and entered into correspondence with the head of French humanists, Guillaume Budet (1467-1540). All this caused indignation among the Franciscans - Rabelais began to be comprehensively oppressed, especially for reading illegal books. He could even be put on trial by the Inquisition. Then friends led by Budet helped young man go to the Benedictine monastery at Mallese. According to the charter of the Order of St. Benedict, monks had to devote twice as much time to earthly affairs as to prayers. In Malieuse, Rabelais became the personal secretary of Bishop Geoffroy d'Estissac (?—1542), who favored the humanists, and was able to take up natural science.

This was the liberal period of the reign of Francis I (1515-1547), when the king, in the heat of the struggle against the Holy Roman Emperor and at the same time the Spanish King Charles V (1519-1558) and the papacy, sought support from French humanists. This state policy allowed Rabelais to leave the walls of the monastery without permission. According to one version of biographers, in 1528 he became secular, i.e. living among the laity as a priest, thoroughly studied medicine in Paris, and he started a family, and his wife gave birth to François two children. In September 1530, the future writer entered the university in Montpellier, and since he had already mastered a lot in Paris, in November of the same year he received a bachelor's degree in medicine. Seven years later, in 1537, Rabelais defended his doctoral dissertation.

In 1532, Rabelais became a doctor at the city hospital in Lyon, the most free-thinking city in France at that time. That year, a popular book entitled “The Great and Invaluable Chronicles of the Great and Huge Giant Gargantua” enjoyed unprecedented success at the Lyon market. The name Gargantua is characteristic - translated from Old French it means “well, what a hefty throat you have.”
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* There are several translations of the titles of both the folk book and Rabelais' books about Gargantua and Pantagruel. We preferred to dwell on the options given by the famous historian, literary critic and translator A.K. Dzhivelegov (1875-1952) and the outstanding translator N.M. Lyubimov (1912-1992), whose translation of Rabelais's book into Russian is generally recognized as the best.

Rabelais decided to earn a little extra money and write a sequel to the book. His hero was the son of Gargantua - Pantagruel. That was the name of another one folk hero, very popular in France in the 16th century, is the little devil of Pantagruel, who learned to extract salt from sea water. He threw handfuls of it into the throats of drunkards and aroused in them more and more thirst. In Rabelais's work, Pantagruel became simply a giant and the son of Gargantua. The book "Pantagruel, King of the Dipsodes*, shown in his authentic form, with all his terrifying deeds and exploits, the work of the late Master Alcofribas**, extractor of the quintessence" was published at the beginning of 1533.
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* Dipsodes are thirsty.
** In the first books, Rabelais took the pseudonym Alcofribas Nazier. (Alcofribas Nasier is an anagram of the writer’s name; recall: an anagram is a rearrangement of letters in a word to form a new word.)

The book was quickly sold out, and meanwhile its author went on a trip - he was hired as a doctor at the French embassy in Rome. The embassy was sent to the papal court in connection with the elevation to the rank of cardinal of Bishop Jean du Bellay *, who from that time became the main patron and defender of Rabelais throughout his life. The trip was short. Returning to Lyon in May 1534, Rabelais soon published a sequel to Pantagruel. This time he returned to the roots and told about the giant’s parents. “The Tale of the Terrible Life of the Great Gargantua, Father of Pantagruel, Once Written by Master Alcofribas Nazier, Extractor of the Quintessence,” from that time began to open the entire cycle of books about Gargantua and Pantagruel. It told how the famous wizard Merlin created the giant Grangouzier and the giantess Galamel to help King Arthur. The giants got married and had a son, the giant Gargantua. When he grew up, the young man was armed with a wonderful club, given a huge horse and sent to serve King Arthur**.
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* Jean du Bellay (1492 or 1494 - 1560) was a cousin of the Pleiades poet Joachin du Bellay (1522-1560) and, in addition to Rabelais, patronized Pierre de Ronsard (1524-1585) and his students. The brother of the cardinal - the ruler of Turin and Piedmont, Guillaume du Bellay (1491-1543), - some biographers call the prototype of Pantagruel in the last three books.
** To this day, there is a debate about the place of origin of the Arthurian cycle of legends - either it was created on the soil of modern Great Britain, or in Brittany, the historical region of modern France; supporters of the second version claim that all events from the life of knights Round table took place on French lands.

At the time of the publication of the book about Gargantua, biographers date two important events in the writer's life - the death of his father and the birth of his third child.

Further work on the book was delayed for very serious reasons. There was a sharp turn in the policy of Francis I towards Catholicism. The country began to persecute heretics, primarily humanists. Rabelais was forced to leave for Italy, where he received forgiveness from Pope Paul III (1534-1549) for leaving the monastery without permission.

Upon his return to France in 1536, according to biographers, Rabelais became a secret agent of the king and wrote anonymous books in defense of royal policies. For this reason, he turned out to be beyond the reach of the Inquisition, which had raged in France since July 1538. Moreover, in 1545 the writer received from Francis I the privilege to further publish Pantagruel.

“The third book of the heroic deeds and sayings of the good Pantagruel. The work of Master François Rabelais, Doctor of Medicine” was published in 1546. Just like the two previous ones, it was condemned by the church. In the year of publication of the “Third Book,” the writer’s friend Etienne Dolet* was publicly burned in Paris for heresy. A mortal threat loomed over Rabelais, especially since Francis I, who favored him, died the following year.
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* Etienne Dolet (1509-1546) - French humanist, scientist, writer, publisher; Now he is highly revered in France, and a monument has been erected at the site of his burning.

The writer went to Metz, which was then part of the Holy Roman Empire, but populated mainly by the French, where he began working as a doctor. And soon, through the efforts of du Bellay, Rabelais was taken under the patronage of two of the most powerful aristocratic houses in France - the closest relatives of the royal dynasties of France and Scotland: Coligny and the Dukes of Guise. In 1551, Rabelais was given the position of curate in Meudon near Paris. He was not required to serve, but the income was decent. Now the writer could devote himself entirely to writing next book about the adventures of Pantagruel.

It was published in 1552, a year before the death of the author, and was called “The Fourth Book of the Heroic Deeds and Sayings of the Valiant Pantagruel, the Work of Master François Rabelais, Doctor of Medicine.” It told about the journey of the Thelemites* to the oracle of the Divine Bottle.
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* Thelemites - in the book of Rabelais this is the name given to members of the Thelemite community, headed by brother Jean; according to the charter of the community, its highest principle was the motto “Do what you want,” which is why the Thelemites, free from the will of others, turned out to be the most virtuous people; Pantagruel and Panurge, in particular, were Thelemites.

The young king Henry II (reigned 1547–1559) gave Rabelais a special license to print his new book, which was also condemned by the Church. The writer fled from possible persecution, and in the second half of 1553 news arrived that he had died. Whether this is true, and if so, under what circumstances the writer died is unknown.

Twelve years later, in 1564, the Fifth and last book heroic deeds and sayings of the good Pantagruel, an essay by the doctor of medicine, master Francois Rabelais." Experts admit that it was compiled on the basis of the writer’s drafts, and therefore is more boring and not as witty as previous books. The fifth book appeared when the armed struggle between Catholics and Huguenots (French Protestants) began, and St. Bartholomew's Night (August 24, 1572) was approaching.

To understand the heroes of “Gargantua and Pantagruel”, first of all you need to understand the meaning and meaning of the great writer’s work itself. The fact is that Rabelais is one of the first, most brilliant and radical ideologists of the Renaissance, presented precisely in the guise in which it gave birth modern world; that is, Rabelais is one of the small number of brilliant thinkers who initially substantiated the ideology of individualism, unbelief and atheism under the guise of humanism and self-worth human personality, admiration for the limitless possibilities of science and education, the freedom of man and society as a whole from anyone’s power and the fiction of the subordination of authorities to a free society, etc. Thus, the French “Gargantua and Pantagruel” are an ideological work, standing on a par with the Italian “ Divine Comedy"Dante, the German "Faust" by Goethe and the English "Hamlet" by Shakespeare, and shows us the true spiritual essence of Western European civilization.

What is the height of the position of the work, such is the height of the position of its main characters. And although literary scholars cannot decide on this issue, but still we have to admit that in Gargantua and Pantagruel the author described the idea of the Renaissance ideologists about the ideal ruler (in this matter Gargantua acts as a secondary hero, Pantagruel is the true ideal), and in the image of Panurge (translated from Greek - “cunning”, “ dodger") Rabelais showed the type of man of the future most adapted to survival - a competitor to the ideal man in the person of the monk Jean.

Brother Jean and Panurge

“Panurge is the living embodiment of the famous motto: “Do what you want!” He is an example of a free individual, not subject to either human or divine law.”* In other words, a person leading the most perfect lifestyle as imagined by our contemporaries. At the same time, we note that Panurge knows “sixty-three ways of obtaining money, of which the most honest and most common was unnoticed theft”**, but this does not prevent him from remaining a beggar and being “the most wonderful of mortals.” Since the last phrase was deliberately taken by Rabelais from the satirical “Epistle” of the poet Clement Marot*** to King Francis I, a number of researchers have suggested that it was this poet who served as a kind of prototype for Panurge.
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* Encyclopedia of literary heroes. M.: Agraf, 1997.
** Francois Rabelais. Gargantua and Pantagruel. M.: Pravda, 1981. The book below is quoted from this edition.
*** Clement Marot (1497-1544) - the first poet French Renaissance; an adventurer by character and destiny; favorite of Margaret of Navarre

The story of the “Panurg Herd” is indicative. The hero, while sailing on a ship, decided to give his friends a “very funny spectacle.” He bargained for the best ram - the leader of the herd - from a merchant named Turkey, and unexpectedly threw it overboard. At the leader's bleating, all the sheep jumped into the abyss, dragging with them the little Turkey who was trying to save them. No one came to the poor man’s aid, and the noble brother Jean even said: “I don’t see anything wrong with that.” Panurge summed up what happened with the words: “I gave myself pleasure worth more than fifty thousand francs, I swear to God.”

The senseless cruelty of the Thelemites in this story is amazing. Critics are trying to justify it, arguing about the justice of punishing the greedy merchant. However, both Panurge and the story with the sheep itself appear completely different in the light of what has become catchphrases“Panurg herd”, that is, a crowd mindlessly following someone. “The most wonderful of mortals” turns out to be the instigator and destroyer of the crowd! It is amazing that at the same time, the biographer Rabelais, who did not notice the revelation of the essence of the hero in the process of historical development of mankind, especially emphasized: “The fate of Panurge testified to the dangers lurking for a person in giftedness, talents, and an insightful mind...”*.
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* A.I. Gerbstman. Francois Rabelais (1495-1553). In the book "Writers of France". M.: Education, 1964.

What about ideal rulers? It is enough that the humanist Pantagruel declared Panurge his friend at the very first meeting, and in the future it was “Panurge who directed Pantagruel’s energy to useful pursuits.”

In general, the ruler must be a pantagruelist, that is, always adhere to the golden mean both in his life and in his affairs. This means that above all he must put peace and justice; must be content, but not satiated; be a skeptic and a stoic at the same time. A good ruler of the people is a “nursing mother,” “gardener,” “healing physician.” The evil ruler is a “devourer of the people,” “swallowing and devouring the people.” About Pantagruel, as a model of a ruler, Rabelais says: “... he was the best of all the great and small people who have ever girt themselves with a sword. He saw only one good thing in everything, interpreted any action as good side. Nothing depressed him, nothing outraged him. That is why he was a vessel of the divine mind, because he was never upset or worried. For all the treasures over which the firmament and which the earth conceals within itself, no matter in what dimension we take it: in height, in depth, in width or in length, are not worth it for our heart to worry because of them, our feelings and mind to become confused.”

Society has developed a stable idea of the most pleasant behavior of the main characters of the book, which is called Rabelaisianism - this is the way of life of a cheerful, good-natured hawkmoth and reveler, immoderate in food and drink, in fun and amusements, a kind of good little fellow on his own. Rabelais himself, of course, had nothing to do with this, but Rabelaisian life is the dream of many people. Agree, you want to live in peace, contentment, health, fun, always eat and drink plentifully. True, when the question arises: at the expense of whom? - it turns out that Rabelais, as well as all humanists combined, found it difficult to answer. Although proposals were put forward, for example, to pantagruelize through the labor of slaves or convicted criminals.

In a word, let’s not forget that for all the gaiety of the heroes of “Gargantua and Pantagruel” and the excitement of their adventures, they were born from ideas creative personality, who lived at a certain stage in the development of human society, and therefore, due to the tradition familiar to medieval man, who wanted to create and prosper under the shadow of a good ruler and at the expense of the hard labor of the less privileged classes. It is surprising when modern creative intelligentsia tries to introduce the ideas of pantagruelism in our Fatherland.

Rabelais' book was brilliantly illustrated in 1854 by Gustave Doré.

Gargantua

GARGANTUA (French Gargantua: “que grand tu as” - lit., “well, what a hefty throat you have”) is one of the main characters in the novel by F. Rabelais “Gargantua and Pantagruel”, to which the first of five books is entirely dedicated. published in 1534. The prototype of Rabelais’s hero is the character of the same name, the so-called. folk book "Great and Invaluable Chronicles of the Great and Huge Giant Gargantua." In the image of G. Rabelais, for the first time in literature, creates a portrait of a kind and wise giant, the ideal ruler of the country of Utopia, combining the fantastic power of nature and the moral height of man. He is the son of the giant Grangousier and the giantess Gargamella. Having spent eleven months in his mother's womb, G. was born through her left ear. The humanist teacher Panocrates teaches G. not only various sciences and arts, but also all kinds of crafts. And then he is sent to complete his education in Paris, where he, angry at the annoying Parisians, drowned “two hundred sixty thousand four hundred and eighteen people, not counting women and children” in his urine and removed the bells from all the city churches. Then G. returns home to repel the attack of King Picrohol, who treacherously invaded the possessions of Grangousier. During the war, he commits various - both funny and heroic - acts. It was G. who founded the famous Thelema monastery, the charter of which reads: “Do what you want.” G. is most famous for his letter to his son Pantagruel, in which he puts the human soul above the body, because the latter only reproduces itself, but is not capable of improving. Thus, G. Rabelais puts into the mouth the humanistic idea of the progressive development of human society and Man himself.

Lit.: Dzhivilegov A.K. Rabelais // History of French literature. M., 1946. T.1; Pinsky L.E. Rabelais's laughter // Pinsky L.E. Renaissance realism. M., 1961; Bakhtin M.M. The works of Francois Rabelais and folk culture Middle Ages and Renaissance, M., 1965; Losev A.F. Francois Rabelais // Losev A.F. Renaissance aesthetics. M., 1978. P.586-593.

All characteristics in alphabetical order:

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Frunçois Rabelais was the most brilliant writer of the French Renaissance.

The story of Gargantua and Pentagruel was based on the old French folk tale about the giant Gargantua, well known at the beginning of the 15th century. Rabelais wrote a novel in which popular folk tale characters found new life. This is how the novel “Gargantua and Pantagruel” arose in five books. Four books of the novel were published in 1532-1552. The final fifth book appeared after the author’s death in 1564.

Structure

In the first two books of the novel, riotous fun reigns, peals of deafening laughter are heard. The Thelema monastery promises a lot. The bloodthirsty tyrants who encroached on the freedom of Utopia were defeated and punished. Joy and fun triumph, illuminating the world with life-giving light, awakening after centuries of hibernation. But in the final three books of the novel, a different atmosphere reigns. The fact is that fourteen years passed between the writing of the first (second) and third books of the novel (1564). A lot has changed in France over the years. The Thelema monastery turned into an ordinary monastery, in which there was no longer a place for the beautiful harmonious people of the Rabelaisian utopia. But, of course, the ideals of the Thelema monastery, based on the principles of freedom, humanity and religious tolerance, became completely illusory in the new situation. That is why the alarm sounds in the final books of the novel. Cheerful buffoonery every now and then gives way to witty grotesquerie. Something eerie appears in the grotesque images of the final books of the novel. The colors become sharper, heavier, and sometimes even darker.

The first book is “The Tale of the Terrible Life of the Great Gargantua, Father of Pantagruel, Once Composed by Master Alcofribas Nazier, Extractor of the Quintessence” (1534)

On the origin of the Gargantua family. How Gargantua was born. Gargantua, the young son of the giant king Grangousier and his wife Gargamela, is apprenticed to learned theologians, as a result of which he becomes much stupider than he was before. The disgruntled Grangousier gives his son a new mentor and sends him to Paris. There, Gargantua causes a flood (“urine flood”) and takes the large bells from Notre Dame Cathedral to hang them around the neck of his mare. The method of education used by Ponocrates gives completely different results - Gargantua becomes a well-rounded educated person, not forgetting about his physical development. Meanwhile, the kingdom of Grangousier is attacked by its neighbor, King Picrohol. Gargantua returns home and, with the help of his friends, as well as his brother Jean, a Benedictine monk from Seiya, defeats the army of Picrocholus. For his services in the war against the invaders, Gargantua allows Brother Jean to build a monastery to his taste - Thelema Abbey, the charter of which is strikingly different from the charters of all other monasteries.

2. Second book “Pantagruel, king of the dipsodes, shown in his authentic form, with all his terrifying deeds and exploits” (1533)

Gargantua gives birth to a son, Pantagruel. Having matured, he goes to study at different universities in France and eventually ends up in Paris. Having received a letter from his father, in which he wrote about great importance education in human life, Pantagruel takes on science with even greater zeal; and having resolved the great litigation between Senor Peyvino and Senor Lizhizad, he receives universal recognition of his intelligence and talents. In Paris, Pantagruel meets Panurge, who becomes his closest friend. Soon Pantagruel receives news that his homeland has been attacked by an army of giants led by King Anarch. Pantagruel hurries to his father's rescue and defeats his enemies.

3. Third book “The third book of the heroic deeds and sayings of the good Pantagruel” (1546)

Peace has been established in the kingdom of Gargantua. Panurge, having received the castellation of Ragu from Pantagruel and squandered all the income from it for several years in advance, decides to get married. However, at the same time, he is tormented by doubts - will he be happy in marriage or will he be horned, beaten and robbed? To resolve such a question, Panurge turns to the sorceress, holy fool, poet, doctor, theologian, jester Tribula, and resorts to fortune telling. Pantagruel interprets all predictions and advice in a bad way, and Panurge - in a good way. Having achieved nothing definite, Pantagruel, Panurge, Brother Jean, Epistemon and their friends decide to go on a journey to the oracle of the Divine Bottle.

4. The fourth book “The fourth book of the heroic deeds and sayings of the valiant Pantagruel” (1552)

The journey begins. Pantagruel's squadron visits many islands (among them the islands of Papomans and Papefigs and the island of Wild Sausages), and falls into a strong storm. Rabelais uses the episodes with the islands to satire church orders (which, however, is abundantly enough in all previous books), and in the scene with the storm the characters of each of the characters are revealed.

5. Fifth book “The fifth and last book of the heroic deeds and sayings of the good Pantagruel” (1564)

The journey continues. Seafarers land on Zvonkoy Island (a new satire on the church), Zastenok Island (a satirical depiction of the modern Rabelais court and the arbitrariness that reigned there) and the island of apedeuts (a parody of the fiscal department). As a result, they sail to Lantern Island and hear the sacred word of the Bottle: “Trink!” (“Drink!”)

French literature

Gargantua, Pantagruel and Panurge

Let's start with a warning. At one time, our wonderful actor and director R.A. Bykov* told the following story. In the film by A.A. Tarkovsky's "The Passion of Andrei" ("Andrei Rublev") Bykov played the role of a buffoon. To make it more believable, we decided to sing authentic buffoon choruses of the 15th century, fortunately the texts of those have been preserved. When the filmmakers got into a special storage facility and were given an old manuscript with special precautions, they were amazed - the choruses consisted almost entirely of profanity.
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* Rolan Antonovich Bykov (1929-1998) - an outstanding Soviet actor and film director, creator of such famous films for children as “Aibolit-66”, “Car, Violin and Dog Blob”, “Scarecrow” and others.

What were you waiting for? - the specialist who supervised the filmmakers was offended. - What else could have amused the audience of those times?

Another example. France of the 17th century, the era of the Iron Mask and Angelique - the Marquise of Angels. The favorite address of the Sun King Louis XIV to his favorites was tender: “My turd!”

Why such advance notice? Moreover, the great work of Francois Rabelais “Gargantua and Pantagruel” is a largely physiological work, created on the basis of folk tradition and in full accordance with the mores of the French common people of the 16th century. Therefore, any accusations against the author of immorality and turning one’s nose up at the foul-smelling stories of the book, to put it mildly, are not smart and unfounded. How else could Rabelais be truthful with the reader in times of unconcealed bodily nature? In the words of William Shakespeare's 130th sonnet:

And the body smells like the body smells,
Not like a violet's delicate petal*.
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* Shakespeare's sonnets translated by S. Marshak. M.: Soviet writer, 1955.

Little reliable information has been preserved about the life of François Rabelais. We don't even know exactly when he was born. According to indirect data, it is assumed that in 1494 in Chinon. François was the youngest son of a minor court official, Antoine Rabelais, who inherited a noble title and estates from his parents. According to the traditions of that time, the youngest child in the family was prepared to serve God. In 1510, Rabelais entered the Franciscan (another name - Cordilleran) monastery in Fontenay-Leconte and received priestly rank.

A young man with an inquisitive mind, Francois chose to devote himself to science, studied Latin, and entered into correspondence with the head of French humanists, Guillaume Budet (1467-1540). All this caused indignation among the Franciscans - Rabelais began to be comprehensively oppressed, especially for reading illegal books. He could even be put on trial by the Inquisition. Then friends, led by Budet, helped the young man move to the Benedictine monastery in Mallese. According to the charter of the Order of St. Benedict, monks had to devote twice as much time to earthly affairs as to prayers. In Malieuse, Rabelais became the personal secretary of Bishop Geoffroy d'Estissac (?-1542), who favored humanists, and was able to take up natural science.

Rabelais decided to earn a little extra money and write a sequel to the book. His hero was the son of Gargantua - Pantagruel. This was the name of another folk hero, very popular in France in the 16th century, the little devil Pantagruel, who learned to extract salt from sea water. He threw handfuls of it into the throats of drunkards and aroused in them more and more thirst. In Rabelais's work, Pantagruel became simply a giant and the son of Gargantua. The book "Pantagruel, King of the Dipsodes*, shown in his authentic form, with all his terrifying deeds and exploits, the work of the late Master Alcofribas**, extractor of the quintessence" was published at the beginning of 1533.
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* Dipsodes are thirsty.
** In the first books, Rabelais took the pseudonym Alcofribas Nazier. (Alcofribas Nasier is an anagram of the writer’s name; recall: an anagram is a rearrangement of letters in a word to form a new word.)

The book was quickly sold out, and meanwhile its author went on a trip - he was hired as a doctor at the French embassy in Rome. The embassy was sent to the papal court in connection with the elevation to the rank of cardinal of Bishop Jean du Bellay *, who from that time became the main patron and defender of Rabelais throughout his life. The trip was short. Returning to Lyon in May 1534, Rabelais soon published a sequel to Pantagruel. This time he returned to the roots and told about the giant’s parents. “The Tale of the Terrible Life of the Great Gargantua, Father of Pantagruel, Once Written by Master Alcofribas Nazier, Extractor of the Quintessence,” from that time began to open the entire cycle of books about Gargantua and Pantagruel. It told how the famous wizard Merlin created the giant Grangouzier and the giantess Galamel to help King Arthur. The giants got married and had a son, the giant Gargantua. When he grew up, the young man was armed with a wonderful club, given a huge horse and sent to serve King Arthur**.
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* Jean du Bellay (1492 or 1494 - 1560) was a cousin of the Pleiades poet Joachin du Bellay (1522-1560) and, in addition to Rabelais, patronized Pierre de Ronsard (1524-1585) and his students. The brother of the cardinal - the ruler of Turin and Piedmont, Guillaume du Bellay (1491-1543), - some biographers call the prototype of Pantagruel in the last three books.
** To this day there is a debate about the place of origin of the Arthurian cycle of legends - either it was created on the soil of modern Great Britain, or in Brittany - the historical region of modern France; supporters of the second version claim that all events in the life of the Knights of the Round Table took place on French lands.

At the time of the publication of the book about Gargantua, biographers date two important events in the writer’s life - the death of his father and the birth of his third child.

The young king Henry II (reigned 1547-1559) gave Rabelais a special license to print his new book, which was also condemned by the Church. The writer fled from possible persecution, and in the second half of 1553 news arrived that he had died. Whether this is true, and if so, under what circumstances the writer died, is unknown.

Twelve years later, in 1564, “The fifth and last book of the heroic deeds and sayings of the good Pantagruel, the work of the doctor of medicine, master Francois Rabelais” was published. Experts admit that it was compiled on the basis of the writer’s drafts, and therefore is more boring and not as witty as previous books. The fifth book appeared when the armed struggle between Catholics and Huguenots (French Protestants) began, and St. Bartholomew's Night (August 24, 1572) was approaching.

To understand the heroes of “Gargantua and Pantagruel”, first of all you need to understand the meaning and meaning of the great writer’s work itself. The fact is that Rabelais is one of the first, most brilliant and radical ideologists of the Renaissance, presented precisely in the guise in which it gave birth to the modern world; that is, Rabelais is one of the small number of brilliant thinkers who initially substantiated the ideology of individualism, unbelief and atheism under the guise of humanism and the intrinsic value of the human personality, admiration for the limitless possibilities of science and education, the freedom of man and society as a whole from anyone’s power and fictions of the subordination of authorities to a free society, etc. Thus, the French “Gargantua and Pantagruel” are an ideological work, standing on a par with the Italian “Divine Comedy” by Dante, the German “Faust” by Goethe and the English “Hamlet” by Shakespeare, and demonstrates to us the true spiritual essence of Western European civilization.

What is the height of the position of the work, such is the height of the position of its main characters. And although literary scholars cannot make up their minds on this issue, we still have to admit that in Gargantua and Pantagruel the author described the idea of the Renaissance ideologists about an ideal ruler (in this matter Gargantua acts as a secondary hero, Pantagruel is the true ideal), and in the image of Panurge ( translated from Greek - “cunning”, “cunning”) Rabelais showed the type of man of the future most adapted to survival - a competitor to the ideal man in the person of the monk Jean.

“Panurge is the living embodiment of the famous motto: “Do what you want!” He is an example of a free individual, not subject to either human or divine law.”* In other words, a person leading the most perfect lifestyle as imagined by our contemporaries. At the same time, we note that Panurge knows “sixty-three ways of obtaining money, of which the most honest and most common was unnoticed theft”**, but this does not prevent him from remaining a beggar and being “the most wonderful of mortals.” Since the last phrase was deliberately taken by Rabelais from the satirical “Epistle” of the poet Clement Marot*** to King Francis I, a number of researchers have suggested that it was this poet who served as a kind of prototype for Panurge.
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* Encyclopedia of literary heroes. M.: Agraf, 1997.
** Francois Rabelais. Gargantua and Pantagruel. M.: Pravda, 1981. The book below is quoted from this edition.
*** Clement Marot (1497-1544) - the first poet of the French Renaissance; an adventurer by character and destiny; favorite of Margaret of Navarre

The senseless cruelty of the Thelemites in this story is amazing. Critics are trying to justify it, arguing about the justice of punishing the greedy merchant. However, both Panurge and the story with the sheep itself appear completely different in the light of the popular expression “Panurge’s flock,” that is, a crowd mindlessly following someone. “The most wonderful of mortals” turns out to be the instigator and destroyer of the crowd! It is amazing that at the same time, the biographer Rabelais, who did not notice the revelation of the essence of the hero in the process of historical development of mankind, especially emphasized: “The fate of Panurge testified to the dangers lurking for a person in giftedness, talents, and an insightful mind...” *
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* A.I. Gerbstman. Francois Rabelais (1495-1553). In the book "Writers of France". M.: Education, 1964.

In general, the ruler must be a pantagruelist, that is, always adhere to the golden mean both in his life and in his affairs. This means that above all he must put peace and justice; must be content, but not satiated; be a skeptic and a stoic at the same time. A good ruler of the people is a “nursing mother,” “gardener,” “healing physician.” The evil ruler is a “devourer of the people,” “swallowing and devouring the people.” About Pantagruel, as a model of a ruler, Rabelais says: “... he was the best of all the great and small people who have ever girt themselves with a sword. He saw only one good thing in everything, and interpreted any action in a good way. Nothing depressed him, nothing outraged him. That is why he was a vessel of the divine mind, because he was never upset or worried. For all the treasures over which the vault of heaven spreads and which the earth conceals within itself, no matter in what dimension we take it: in height, in depth, in width or in length, are not worth our heart being worried about them, our feelings and minds were in confusion.”

Society has developed a stable idea of the most pleasant behavior of the main characters of the book, which was called Rabelaisianism - this is the way of life of a cheerful, good-natured hawkmoth and reveler, immoderate in food and drink, in fun and amusements, a kind of good fellow on his own mind. Rabelais himself, of course, had nothing to do with this, but Rabelaisian life is the dream of many people. Agree, you want to live in peace, contentment, health, fun, always eat and drink plentifully. True, when the question arises: at the expense of whom? - it turns out that Rabelais, as well as all humanists combined, found it difficult to answer. Although proposals were put forward, for example, to pantagruelize through the labor of slaves or convicted criminals.

In a word, let’s not forget that for all the gaiety of the heroes of “Gargantua and Pantagruel” and the fascination of their adventures, they were born from the ideas of a creative personality who lived at a certain stage in the development of human society, and therefore, due to the tradition familiar to medieval man, who wanted to create and to prosper under the shadow of a good ruler and at the expense of the hard labor of the less privileged classes. It is surprising when modern creative intelligentsia tries to introduce the ideas of pantagruelism in our Fatherland.

Rabelais' book was brilliantly illustrated in 1854 by Gustave Doré.