7/27/2019 2914800

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/2914800 1/4

Rabelais,--A Source for Gulliver's Travels

Author(s): William A. EddySource: Modern Language Notes, Vol. 37, No. 7 (Nov., 1922), pp. 416-418Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2914800 .

Accessed: 10/09/2013 00:31

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of 

content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

The Johns Hopkins University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to

 Modern Language Notes.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 190.175.3.79 on Tue, 10 Sep 2013 00:31:43 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

7/27/2019 2914800

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/2914800 2/4

RABELAIS,-A SOURCE FOIL GULLIVER'S TRAVELS

For a longtimetheRabelaisian lementn Gulliver as beenrecognized,nd a debtassumed. Sir WalterScott pointed ut,withperfectccuracy,hattheocecupationsf the pedantsn theAcademy f Lagado, in the thirdvoyage, re largelymodelleduiponRabelais' ccount fthe Abstractorsn the Courtof Queen11Thim.Further ebt o Rabelaishas beennoted n the ncidentofGulliverextinguishinghe fire t the palace in Lilliput,2whichresembles he

joke played by Gargantuaupon the Parisians. Theparallel is fir,stf all in the coarse situation (a giant urinatiiigshamelessly n the presenceof a crowdof pygmies); and secondly,in the devastation nd wide-spread errorproduced in each caseby the flood.3 Swift also seems to have a passage of Rabelais inmind, wrhen e makes Gulliver commenton the shabbyancestryof the world'saristocracyhat passes in reviewbeforehis eyes inGlubdu'bdrib.4The satire in both accounts is the same, namely

that popes and princesare, in reality,bred from a long line ofpick-pocketsnd gamesters.

The above is a sumumaryfthe allegedborrowings,ll of whichhave been commentedupolnby critics of Gulliver.5 To theseinaternal arallels I have nothing to add. So far, however, hedebthas beeninferred holly rom heseparallels,whichwhenexamined,will be found inexact and unconvincing. MIay not

Swifthave copied some of the imitatorsof Rabelais, instead of

:'Sir Walter Scott's edition of Swift, 1814, XI, 215-217n., where hereprintsMIotteux' ranslation fRabelais, Bk. V, ch. xxii.

2 Gulliver, age 56; Rabelais, Bk. I, ch. xvii, page 70. All referencesoG,ulliver's ravels are to the editionby G. R. Dennis, 1905; vol. viii ofThe Prose WorksofJonathan wvift,dited by Temple Scott. Referencesto and quotationsfromRabelais are based on thetranslationbyUrquhartand Motteux,completed n 1708, the text withwhichSwift himselfwas

probablyfamiliar. I have used the reprint n The Tudor Translations,editedby WV.. Henley,1900.

3 Gulliver s banishedfromLilliput, amongotherreasons,to preventrecurrence f the disastrousflood. Comparealso with similar situationsin Rabelais, Bk. I, ch. xxxvi, page 126; Bk. I, ch. viir, page 132.

Gulliver, age 208; Rabelais, Bk. I, ch. i, page 25.See thesource tudiesbyHo6nncherndBorkowsky,n Anglia,x andxv.

416

This content downloaded from 190.175.3.79 on Tue, 10 Sep 2013 00:31:43 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

7/27/2019 2914800

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/2914800 3/4

RABELAIS,-SOURCE FOR GULLI VER'S TRAVELS 417

Rabelais himself? I shall here prove that Swift's mind waswell stored with incidentsfrom Rabelais, whose workshe musthave known almost by heart, since he was able to quote themoff-

hand in his correspondence, ithverbal accuracy.Not counting wovague references o Rabelais as a prevaricator

and a satirist,7 wiftfour timesquotes him directly. In one ofhis contributions o theExaminerhere s the following:

" I likewiserememberhe story f a giant inRabelais, whoused to feedupon windmills, ut was unfortunatelyhokedwith a small lump of butterbefore warmoven."8

The allusion is to the following:

" For one WYidenostrils, huge giant . . . choaked himselfwith eating ahuge lumpoffreshbutter t themouthof a hot oven."

In a letter to Bolingbroke, wiftwrites,-

" The poor dead queen is used much ike the giant Lougarou n Rabelais.Pantagruel took Lougarou by the heels,and made himhis weapon to killtwenty thergiants, then flunghim over a river nlto he town and killedtwo ducks and an old eat." 0

The original n Rabelais is as follows:

" He threw hebodyofLoupgarou, s hard as he could againstthe city,where falling ike a frogupon his belly . . . lhewith the said fall killeda singedhe-cat, wetshe-cat, farting uck and a brideledgoose." "

That Swift employedanother storyof Rabelais in some writintg

now lost is provedbythefollowing tatement f Bolingbroke n aletter o Swift:

" There never was a better application than yours of the story ofPicrochole. The storkswill never ome, nd theymustbe porters ll theirliVes." 12

6 See especiallythe ridicule of learning n theAmusements erious andComical, by Tom Brown, 1704; as discussedby ProfessorElbert N. S.Thompson,n Mod.Lang. Notes, 1917,vol. 32, pp. 90-94.

7Prose Works, x, 317; and x, 376.8 Contributionso the Examiner,No. 20. December, 710.Rabelais, Bk. IV, ch.xvii, pages 102, 104.Letterto Bolingbroke, ept. 14, 1714.

1 Rabelais,Bk. II, ch. xxix, page 319.12 Bolingbrokeo Swift,March17, 1718-19. The allusion is to Rabelais,

Bk. l, ch. 49, page 162.

3

This content downloaded from 190.175.3.79 on Tue, 10 Sep 2013 00:31:43 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

7/27/2019 2914800

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/2914800 4/4

418 MODERN LANGUAGE NOTES

Finally, nd most mportantf all, Swiftalludesdirectly ooneoftheAbstractorsf QueenNVhim'sourt.

" For as to your scheme fraisingone-hundred-and-ten-thousandounds,it is as vain as that of Rabelais, whichwas to squeeze out wind from heposteriors f a dead ass." 13

Not only s this ast a correctuotation romRabelais, ut twillberecognizeds anaccuratetatementftheexperimenterformedbythephysician homGulliver isits n Lagado; except hatthelatter pplies hebellows oa dog nstead fto an ass.14

Swiftknew the worksof Rabelais. He quoted the latter's

ridiculeof scientificrojectors,nd reproducedt in Gulliver'sTravels. I believewemayconcludewithreason hat, n writing,Gulliver's ravels, wift orrowedints irectlyrom abelais.

WILLIAMI A. EDDY.Princeton University.

REVIEWS

Beowuitf,n Int-oductiono theStudyof thePoemwith Dis-cutssionfthe tories fOffandFinn. ByR.W.CHAMBERS.Cambridge:Universityress,1921. Pp. xii+ 417.

The time is almostripe for the compilationf a Beowulfvariorum.Such,however,snotthetask hatProfessorhambershas setforhimselfn thismasterlyolume,lthough, henonedoesappear, iscontributionsill bulk arge n itspages. If anyfault sfoundwith hepresenttudy,tis likely obethathe doesnotheresupply complete istoricalutline f scholarshipon-cerninghepoem;for omuch s includedhat tudents illwishthere adbeen venmore. Thebook s dividedntofour artsthefirstoveringhree hapters, hich eal,respectivelyith he

HistoricalElemelnts,heNon-Historicallements,nd Theoriesas to theOrigin, ate, and Structuref thePoem; thesecondpresentingheDocumentsllustratingheStoriesn Beowulfnd

13 Prose Works,WII,,114. An Answerto a Paper Called, "A JMemorialof thePoor Inhabitantsof Ireland."

:"Rabelais, Bk. V, ch. xxii, page 310; Gulliver,189.

This content downloaded from 190.175.3.79 on Tue, 10 Sep 2013 00:31:43 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions