1 See the following studies: Lote, Georges, La Vie et l'oeuvre de Francois Rabelais (Paris: E. Droz, 1938)Google Scholar, especially pp. 237-255; N. H. Clement, ‘The Eclecticism of Rabelais’, PMLA, XLII (1927) especially pp. 378-380.

2 Emile Faguet, Seizième siècle, études littéraires (Paris: Lecene, Oudin et C^le, 1894), especially pp. 100-107; Krailsheimer, A.J., Rabelais and the Franciscans (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963), p. 202 Google Scholar; Screech, M.A., The Rabelaisian Marriage (London: Arnold Publishers, 1958), p. 13 Google Scholar.

3 Screech, ‘The Death of Pan and the Death of Heroes in Rabelais's, Fourth Book’, Bibliothèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance 2 (1955), 36–55 Google Scholar; ‘Some Stoic Elements in Rabelais's, Religious Thought’, Etudes rabelaisiennes, 2 (1956), 73–97 Google Scholar; ‘Further Precision on the Stoico-evangelical Crux: “Chascun abonde en son sens” (T. L., VII)’, Bibliothèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance, 22 (i960), 549-551. Although several scholars have intimated the existence of Stoicism in Rabelais, Professor Screech is the only one who has examined it in any depth. His solid scholarship has greatly influenced the present work, as will be evident by subsequent references to him.

4 Zanta's statement in regard to this point is very sound: ‘Ne nous attendons pas parmi ces restaurateurs du stoïcisme de vrais philosophes, soucieux de faire revivre dans toute son intégrité la pensée antique, mais plutôt des litterateurs et des humanistes.’ Zanta, Léontine, La Renaissance du stoīcisme au XVI’ siecle (Paris: Champion, 1914), p. 50 Google Scholar.

5 The following clarification by Paul Oskar Kristeller is useful here: ‘The common elements which we find in all humanists, and in other scholars with a humanist background, include a certain method of philological and historical criticism, and a certain ideal of literary style; moreover, a historical view that combines an unbounded admiration for classical antiquity, an often unfair contempt for the middle ages, and a belief in the recent or impending rebirth of learning and literature; and also an emphatic and genuine concern with man, and with human, that is, primarily moral, problems’ (‘Studies on Renaissance Humanism during the Last Twenty Years’, Studies in the Renaissance, ix [1962], 17). It is with these qualities in mind that I refer to Rabelais as a humanist. Kristeller adds later on: ‘For in Germany and France, in Spain and England there was a large group of humanists who, without being atheists or pagans, were concerned with scholarship and literature, and unconcerned with Christain apologetics or theology’ (p. 20). For a broader discussion of the purely secular interests of the humanists, and of those influenced by humanism, see also by Kristeller, Chapter n: ‘The Moral Thought of Renaissance Humanism’, Renaissance Thought II (New York: Harper & Row, 1965), pp. 20–68 Google Scholar.

6 Rabelais even portrays the gods being apprehensive about the potential of Pantagruelion, that is, fearful of man's potential. See TL, li, 614. All quotations from Rabelais are taken from the edition of P. Jourda (Paris: Gamier Frères, 1962), deux tomes. Translations of the classical writers may be found in the Loeb Classical Library. Italics have been added in all instances, unless otherwise indicated.

7 The authenticity of Book V has been a continual problem for Rabelaisian critics. Does one accept it as the work of Rabelais or not? Did Rabelais write parts and not the whole of Book V? Such eminent ‘rabelaisants’ as Screech, Alfred Glauser, and Marcel Tetel have discarded Book v in their analyses. Others such as Krailsheimer, Thomas M. Greene, and V.-L. Saulnier have incorporated ideas from it in their critical studies. It is my opinion that we should acknowledge the general authenticity of certain parts of Book V, and I shall use ideas from these sections first in this study. Clement has examined the authorial problem in ‘The Eclecticism of Rabelais’, already quoted, and reached the following conclusions, with which I agree, to justify their use: Of the three parts of Book V —that is, Chapters 1-15, Chapters 16-29, and Chapters 30-43—Clement believes Rabelais composed the first and the last of the three section first, and that the middle part was in put definitive shape by someone other than Rabelais but that he had a rough draft to work from. I would like to add one final reason for the inclusion of ideas from Book V in the present study. In specific regard to Stoicism, there is a thematic development between Books I-IV and Book V. I shall later demonstrate how certain Stoic themes introduced by Rabelais in the earlier works are re-emphasized in the last book. This thematic recapitulation would suggest a continuity of thought and, consequently, would further support the authenticity of Book V.

8 La Vie et I'oeuvre de Franfois Rabelais, p. 255.

9 ‘Some Stoic Elements in Rabelais's Religious Thought’, p. 75.

10 ‘Satisfies all the numbers’: i.e., fills all the requirements of absolute perfection—an allusion to the Pythagorean doctrine that specific numbers stand for perfection of specific kinds; ‘right’ or absolute duty combines them all. ‘Mud autem officium, quod rectum idem appellant, perfectum atque absolutum est et, ut idem dicunt, omnes numeros habet nee praeter sapientem cadere in quemquam potest.’

11 Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers vn.94-95:

12 This evil in Panurge's nature is the same malign force that causes Picrochole's downfall. Cf. Gallet's speech in G, xxxi, 120: ‘… si par nous ton nom et honneur eust este blessé, ou, pour mieulx dire, si I'esperit calumniateur, tenant à mat te titer, eust parfallaces especes et phantasmes ludificatoyres mis en ton entendement que envers toy eussions faict choses non dignes de nostre ancienne amitié . . ‘ . Though most scholars previously have understood the ‘esperit calumniateur’ in a medieval sense to refer to the devil, one is tempted here to ask if Rabelais might be exhibiting a strong Manichean sense of the presence of evil working against moral progress. This, of course, would be expected from a writer influenced by Stoic teachings. Elsewhere, Rabelais does, I believe, express the Manichean consciousness of the reality of both good and evil forces within human nature, with both powers struggling for control of human behavior. The allegorical figures of Physis and Antiphysis, which Rabelais contrasts directly in Book IV, concretely symbolize this basic duality which can be seen in all the novels: for example, Picrochole- Grandgousier, Panurge-Pantagruel. Furthermore, Picrochole and his men, and we could add Panurge here, are presented as being the products of Antiphysis, the universal architect of irrational beings, who fashioned ‘tous les folz et insensez … toutes gens ecervelez et desguarniz de bon jugement et sens commun’ (QL, xxxii, 137).

13 The Rabelaisian Marriage, p. 57.

14 Bridoux, André, Le Stoicisme et son influence (Paris: Librairie philosophique J. Vrin, 1966)Google Scholar; p. 105. In discussing the storm at sea in Book IV, Screech also uses the term ‘active virtue’ to refer to ‘the need of self-help under God’ ('Some Stoic Elements … ‘ , p. 94).

15 Discourses rv.x.1-3:

16 Cf. TL, xxxv, 551: ‘Je interprete (dist Pantagruel) avoir et n'avoir femme en ceste façon: que femme avoir est I'avoir tel que Nature la aréa, qui est pour I'ayde, esbatement et societe de l’homme …’.

17 Laertius vn.112-113:

18 Although Rabelais obviously composed this sentence for an intended comical effect in the tradition of'esprit gaulois', note the adjectives he uses to qualify Panurge's condition. Panurge's fear is a consequence of his being ‘lasche et meschant’. And these traits are, of course, moral flaws.

19 Compare this with the panic and terror, also induced by improper judgment or use of reason, Picrochole's men while fleeing from Gargantua in Book I : ‘ … ilz commencoient soy retirer à diligence, tous efrrayez et perturbez de sens et entendement, comme s'ilz veissent la propre espece et forme de mort davant leurs yeulx … ainsi fuyoient ces gens, de sens desprouveuz, sans scavoir cause de fuyr; tant seulement les poursuit une terreur panice laquelle avoient conceue en leurs ames’ (xliv, 165).

20 Rabelais’ contrast of Panurge's complete lack of active virtue and Pantagruel's firm possession of it is reproduced in Book I with Frere Jean and the monks at Seuilly. Picro chole's marauders, robbing and pillaging the countryside, attack the abbey. This is the response of the monks: ‘Les pauvres diables de moines ne sçavoient auquel de leurs saincts se vouer. A toutes adventures feirent sonner ad capitulem capitulantes. Là feut decreté qu'ilz feroient une belle procession, renforcée de beaulx preschans, et letanies contra hostium insidias, et beaulx responds pro pace’ (xxvii, 106-107). Frère Jean, seeing the futility of his colleagues’ actions, takes off his robe, seizes the staff of the cross, and attacks the enemy.

21 Discourses III.ii.1-2:

22 François Rabelais (London: J. B. Lippincott, 1907), p. 350.