Francois Rabelais

The Third Book illustrated Francois Rabelais

Rabelais then returned to the story of Pantagruel himself in the last three books. In The Third Book of Pantagruel (in French, Le tiers-livre de Pantagruel; the original title is Le tiers livre des faicts et dicts héroïques du bon Pantagruel), the narrative style changes to a parody of the philosophical dialogue, where the earthy Panurge gets the last word. He sermonizes against moral restraint and in favor of indebtedness, yet accepts Pantagruel's offer to repay all of his creditors. Now financially solvent for the first time, Panurge stops wearing his long codpiece and seeks advice about whom to marry. Various auguries (opening Virgil to a random page, inducing prophetic dream through half-hearted fasting) and councillors - the Sibyl of Panzoust, the mute Goatnose, the old poet Raminagrobis, Friar John, a group of learned doctors and lawyers, and a fool - all agree that if he marries, his wife will cheat on him, beat him, and rob him. But he egregiously reinterprets their prophecies in a more favorable light. In a brief interlude, Pantagruel defends Judge Brindlegoose, who has pronounced sentence by rolling dice for 40 years, on the grounds that he is an old idiot and therefore favored by Fortune. As a last attempt to settle the question of marriage, Pantagruel and Panurge take a sea voyage to consult the Oracle of Bacbuc ("Divine Bottle"). Their ship is well-provisioned with the phallic herb Pantagruelion, for which Rabelais gives a ribald natural history.