TETEL Rabelais Folengo

University of Oregon
Rabelais and Folengo

Author(s): Marcel Tetel
Source: Comparative Literature, Vol. 15, No. 4 (Autumn, 1963), pp. 357-364
Published by: Duke University Press on behalf of the University of Oregon
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MARCEL TETEL
Rabelais and Folengo
T HE SIGNIFICANT influence of Teofilo Folengo (pseudony-

miously, Merlin Cocai) on Rabelais has received a great deal of
critical notice. But comment has been restricted largely to three ex-
plicit identities between Rabelais' and Folgeno's works: the episodes
of the sheep and the storm in the Fourth Book and the similarity be-
tween Panurge and Cingar, one of Folengo's principal characters in
the Baldus.
What matters is the transformation of the literary borrowings in
Rabelais' works and why Rabelais was drawn to Folengo. That the
attraction is due to Folengo's verbal inventiveness and spontaneity
might seem more than obvious; Rabelais could hardly have been in-
different to anyone endowed with his two most precious attributes.
But this parallel has so far been overlooked.
Rabelais' three allusions to Folengo leave no doubt that he was
familiar with his Italian predecessor. One has a plausible reason for its
appearance; the other two occur in a whimsical context: "Fracassus,
duquel a ecrit Merlin Coccaie" (II, 1); Fracassus, one of Baldus'
companions, is found in the list of Pantagruel's ancestors.1 "Merlinus
Coccaius, De Patria diaboloru'n" (II, 7) ; last book on the list of books
from the Saint Victor Library. "Merl. Coccaius libro secundo de patria
Diabolorum" (III, 11); here Panurge makes a burlesque allusion to
this imaginary work by Folengo when Pantagruel asks him if he
would not have any dice in his purse. Rabelais must have encountered
this fictitious De Patria diabolorum when reading the first edition of
the Baldus (the Paganini, 1517). It was formerly thought that he had
found a mention of this work in the preface to the second edition (the
Toscolana, 1521),2 because one finds reference there to the compo-
1 In references to quotations from Rabelais, roman numerals refer to the book,
arabic numerals to the chapter.
2 Alessandro Luzio, Studi folenghiani (Florence, 1899), p. 47.
357
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
sition "de stanciis diabolorum quinque libros."3 But

very little whether Rabelais read "de patria diab
ciis diabolorum," though recently two Italian
bitterly over the issue, to the enlightenment of ve
For the episodes of the sheep and the tempest
Rabelais was influenced by the Baldt s, but they f
he only took advantage of the essence of the pl
his own fantasy.) In the scene of the sheep, Cin
the same role; each buys a sheep to throw into
that the leader will tempt his brethren to a simila
no other reason but to play a most cruel trick on
urge avenges a personal insult. But Rabelais fin
his verbal energy through a burlesque eulogy of th
sent in Folengo, introduces Dindenault by means o
with Panurge, and mocks the sheep dealer by givin
guage incommensurable with his rustic character.
What is similar in the episode of the storm in Ra
the conduct of Cingar and Panurge. Both are ex
and manifest their fear in the same vulgar manner
of Eramus' colloquy, "The Shipwreck," Cingar p
taper as big as the mast of the ship if she sav
build a chapel to Saint Nicolas, but "passato el peric
(IV, 24). It has been noted that Baldus during
the mast which was destroyed by standing up a
arms, while Pantagruel just holds up the mast. Fol
thinking of Pulci's Morgante, who acts in the exac
the storm, Fracassus, in the Baldus, kills the whale
been shipwrecked, the very whale they thought
again Folengo could have recalled Morgante, w
3 Merlin Cocai, "Laudes Merlini," Le' Maccheronee
1928), p. 280. The quotations from Folengo are from this
to canto and lines.
4 Carlo Cordie, "Mierlinus Coccaius, de Patria diabolorum," L'Italia che scrive,
III (Jan-Feb. 1947), 4-7; C. F. Goffis, "Merlinus Coccaius, de Patria diabo-
lorum," L'Italia che scrive, XXVI (Mar.-Apr. 1943), 50; and Merlinus Coccaius,
de Patria diabolorum cum comento de dobis Cordielleriis," Antico e Nuovo, IV
(Jan.-Feb. 1948), 40-46.
5 Cordelia del Fiume, De linflzuence de quelqies auteurs italiens sur Francois
Rabelais (Florence, 1918), pp. 24-46; Luzio, pp. 47, 135; Enrico Porto, "Per
1'episodio dei montoni nel Folengo e nel Rabelais," Per il XXXV anniversario
della libreria Luigi Pierro (Naples, 1905), pp. 28-30; Pietro Toldo, "L'arte
italiana nell'opera di Francesco Rabelais," A4rchiv fiir das St-udium der ncueren
Sprachen und Literaturen, C (1898), 103-145; Bonaventura Zumbini, "Gli episodi
dei montoni e della tempesta presso il Folengo e presso il Rabelais," Nozse Per-
copo-Luciani, 30 luglio 1902 (Naples, 1903), pp. 175-183.
358
RABELAIS AND FOLENGO
similar episode. Pantagruel and his group meet

the whale family, the "physetere," which he k
clude that the idea of a storm came to Rabelais esp
as many have suggested. This episode had becom
dent in epics and mediaeval romances imitating
his description of the storm, Folengo is still quite
ticularly in his allegorical personification of th
pletely disregards this traditional treatment. For
to bring out the change in Panurge's character, fr
arrogance to fright. At the same time, he is ab
fuse nautical vocabulary, which he derives from v
Without this verbal mass, Folengo does not achiev
ment that characterizes Rabelais' version.
Cingar ("zingaro"-gypsy) and Panurge ("panourgos"-om-
niscient) are certainly of the same species; but one should not forget
that Cingar had, as ancestors, Brunello, from Boiardo's Orlando Inna-
morato, and, Margutte, from Pulci's Morgante. Rabelais knew both
and even mentions the latter (II, 7 and 30). These four characters share
the same incorrigible and cunning habit of involving themselves in
situations in order to practice escape. The end justifies the means,
and the end is an amnoral roguery. But, while the three Italians remain
essentially the type of the shrewd and industrious rogue, Panurge
emerges as a multidimensional personality with his fears and his happi-
ness, seeking an answer to his fate. When we consider Panurge's
sources, we must also take account of the Roman de Renart and the
"fabliaux" where this type of character abounds. Rabelais sipped at all
these fountains. His Panurge is at midpoint in the genealogy of heroes
which also includes Til Eulenspiegel, Ramieau's nephew, and Figaro.
The Folengo-Rabelaisian influences or relationships noted above
are on firm ground, but critics have gone beyond these, with dubious
results. Rabelais on several occasions uses macaronic Latin, especially
in the Janotus de Bragmardo episode (I, 19) and in the enumeration of
certain books in the Library of Saint Victor (II, 7). But one cannot
deduce from this that Rabelais was directly influenced by Folengo,
who wrote his Bald is in this tongue. Rabelais' use of deformed Latin
is a logical result of his being a monk, playing with a familiar lan-
guage. Among the books in the Library of Saint Victor is one called
"Des Poys au. lard, ctum comlnento." Luzio sees here an allusion to
Cingar who, in the fourteenth canto of the Baldtus, describes the vari-
ous succulent dishes found in the kitchen of the Olympic gods.7 The
6 The episode of the whale can be traced back to Lucian's The Trire Story,
which is one of the earliest parodies of epics and imaginary voyages.
7 Luzio, p. 50.
359
relationship is hardly discernible, but the distingu

does not hesitate to draw a resounding conclusi
biblioteca di San Vittore col nolme di Merlin Coccai volle indubita-
inente attestare la sua gratitudine al grande Italiano a cui do\veva pitu
d'una geniale ispirazione."8
In tlhe prologue to the Foitrth Book, Rabelais cites nearly sixty lnu-
sicians, mnostly French anid Dutch. Two critics have seen here an influ-
ence, or rather a reiminiscence, of Folengo," sillply because Folengo
enumiierates a dozen mlusicians in the thirteenth canto of the Baldzts.
The relationship is teniuous and, considerilng the different uses Rabelais
and Folengo imake of the enunierations of nimsicians, irrelevant. Rabelais
takes us to Jupiter's court where a discussion is being held about a
woodcutter who has lost his axe (cogrI'c) and implores the king of the
go(ls to help him find it. P'riapus, who personifies virility, explains to his
master the various meaniiigs of 'cogIC'e" and appeals to all the musi-
cialns who have supposedly sung solme vulgar refrain in definition of
the word. Rabelais gets a colmic effect by having famous and serious
itisicians sing a popular ballad to define the obscenity of a word.
Foleilgo simply quotes a dozen nmusicians to justify his praise of music.
Another so-called ilnfluence ol i:olellgo on Rabelais forcefully dem-
onstrates the dubious nature of speculations of comparative studies
where evidence is short and imnagination long. At the beginning of the
twentietlh century, Thuasne produced about a hllundred pages on the
"influence" of Folengo on Rabelais.10 In this study he calls to our
attention the fact that, in the prologue to Garga.itital Rabelais reminds
his readers that they should seek in this workl the "sustantificque
louelle" anld warns the that the one who wears a imonk's frock is not
necessarily a imonk because "l'habit ne faict pas le imoine" and cites the
incidenlt in which Cingar "appres avoir depouille les dleux franciscains
de leur robe, rev&t l'une d'elle en ne laissant a ces derniers que leurs
chauisses et leur breviaire."1l Thuasne adds that "il n'y a pas d'elnprunt
de la part de Rabelais, mais une siimple coilncidence." "Why a coincidence ?
This saying belonged to the daily spoken language in the sixteenth
century. Thuasne himlself notes that the expression is already found
in the Romlaln de la Rosc. Under such circumnstances, there is no need
to confront the naiiies of Folengo and Rabelais.
\\Thenl Luzio laimented, that "e certo clhe Rabelais attinse dalla let-
teratura italiana assai piu che non riconosca la critica francese,"l2
s bid., p. 52.
Louis Thuasne, Etuldcs sur Rabelais (Paris, 1904), pp. 231-234; cf. Nan
Cooke Carpeniter, Rabelais and Music (Chapel Hill, 1954), pp. 40-45.
10 Thuasne, pp. 159-265.
" Ibid., p. 179.
12 Luzio, p. 52.
360
he anticipated Sainean, who saw between Foleng

"rapprochement psychologique."13 However, c
nitely exist; it is the question of degree of influen
Once the degree of influence in episodes and c
ascertained and the dubious relationships disca
while parallels between Folengo and Rabeliais ca
larly in stylistic analogies which do not necessaril
simply represent in both authors the verbal energ
sance freedom of form.
In the preface to the Baldlus (the Toscolana), Folengo, under the
pseudonym of Acquario Lodola, claims to have found the poems of
Merlin Cocai in a huge coffer among the tombs of Baldus' companions.
Critics have naturally seen here an analogy with the discovery of Gar-
gantua's genealogy in a large bronze tomb (I, 1).14 Is this parallel suf-
ficient evidence of an influence on Rabelais? The discovery of buried
treasure as a literary trick is not a rare technique. But a close exami-
nation of the two texts shows a subtler influence than the obvious
technique reveals. Folengo describes the volumes which he has just dis-
covered as "doctissima volumlina, libros, librettos, libricolos, librazzos et
mille alios scartaficios.? Rabelais pretends that Gargantua's genealogy
was found in "un gros, gras, grand, gris, joly, petit, moisy livret" (I, 1).
Both authors give the same whimsical description of their discovery
and indulge in the same play on words; the volumes dance before our
eyes, now increasing, now decreasing in size. As usual, when Rabelais
elaborates on what he has borrowed, he is no longer satisfied with mere
imitation. His alliterations (gr-) and his assonances (-is, -y, -it), for
example, are much more significant and sophisticated than those of
Folengo, which are formed from the same root (libr-) and the same
accusative ending (-os). The comic effect is nevertheless the same;
botll Rabelais and Folengo contrast illogically in a single sentence the
largeness and the smallness of the manuscript. Rabelais must have read
the passage in Folengo, and found the way of discovering Gargantua's
genealogy in the discovery of the manuscript of the Bald us.
Future Folengo-Rabelaisian studies should follow the path of stylistic
analogies. As indicated by Bonora and Paoli, Folengo perfected the
macaronic jargon by amalgamating into it the national tongue and
dialects, adding newly forged words, and transposing all this verbal
substance into Latin grammar and declensions.15 By this very trans-
13 Lazar Sain6an, "Les Sources modernes du roman de Rabelais," Rc^-ue des
Etudes rabclaisicnnes, X (1912), 375-420.
14 Thuasne, pp. 180-182; Toldo, p. 110, note 2.
15 Ettore Bonora, Le Maccheronee di Teofilo Folengo (Venice, 1956), pp.
38-121; Teofilo Folengo, Baldus e le altre opere, ed. Ugo E. Paoli (Florence,
1941) ; Ugo E. Paoli, II latino naccheronico (Florence, 1959).
361
position-adapting sublime means to a vulgar end

jargon into verbal wit. Spitzer and Sainean have po
Rabelais finds his verbal tool in his maternal tongue, w
grammatically fixed, but in constant flux; consequentl
he enjoys a freedom of action in handling words.16 He
guage with numerous dialects, jargons, Greek and L
like his predecessor, his fantasy compels him to create
a verbal play that creates laughter.
Folengo and Rabelais share the need for verbal inv
to satisfy an inner exuberance; their overflowing i
them to disregard the ordinary norms of their langua
cates and writes in a whole new language, in which
are self-justifying; Rabelais juxtaposes his new wor
already in existence. Both authors take pleasure in p
enumerations in which words are accumulated for
than to amuse the reader and titilate the ear. They exp
its fullest possibility, as James Joyce was to do so pro
them.17 Each word owes its life, not only to the pla
sentence, but to its sonority and comic capacity; it att
own which surpasses its life in association with othe
Folengo forges adverbs ending in "-iter" and "-tim
rarity of such adverbial suffixes and because of the
"fortiter [strongly], animositer [courageously], ho
pigritatim [slowly]." He Latinizes adjectives, giving
quality: "danzas piffaricas" (dances to the music of
suffix to create an assonance and deform the word: "rex francifer
[French king], lanigerasars [woolen garment]." To deform and give
a word a pedantic sound, he uses the augmentative "-mentum": "man-
giamentum, suspiramentum [big sigh]." He fuses words as if he were
too lethargic to detach them: "calzastirare [to put on socks], trigior-
nos [three days]." One word suffices for several: furious like a dog,
"cagnozatus" ; inhabitant of the woods, "boschicola" ; to act scared, "pol-
tronizzare"; to go on foot, "pedestrare."
Rabelais lengthens an adverb in order to give it a strange sound.
"Horrible" exists, but he prefers "horrifiquement." Using the suffixes
"-al" and "icque," he forms new adjectives which are sometimes pur-
posely distorted for sonorous and comic effects: "gigantal, papima-
nicque, raminagrobidicque, cedipodicque." Latin neologisms bring out
a redundance or a contrast between the sublime and the grotesque:
16 Leo Spitzer, Die Wortbildung als stilistisches Mittel exemplifiziert an Rabe-
lais (Halle, 1900) ; Lazar Sainean, La Langue de Rabelais, II (Paris 1923), 8-231.
17 Duncan Wallam, "Joyce and Rabelais," UKCR, XXIII (1956), 99-110.
362
"robes talares [which comle down to the heels], v

[which have the form of verses], poiltrons magn
merdis ['dia' is a common prefix for pharmaceut
Renaissance ." Rabelais needs a gigantic outlet for
He satiates this need by telescoping several words
der is "une epaule desincornifistibulee."
Like Rabelais, Folengo in his verbal exuberance
synonyms, but on a smaller scale than his French co
of incorporating them into the text, he aligns them
margin of the Toscolana edition of the Baldus. Thus
lare, tartassare, bastonare, tartufolare, tracagnare,"
ronfare, ronchizare, nil different." Sometimes he
of each word: "cacasanguis veroniace, beroldus ma
guinus bressanice, sanguanazzus commluniter."18 T
scriptions, so common in Rabelais, are also frequentl
Both authors like to accumulate several words of app
which, upon closer scrutiny, detail a progression
the words:
Mille marangones super amplam ligna piazzam

tampellant, chioccant, fabricantque insemma stecatum ...
Morbezant, saltant, cifolos ac tympana chioccant,
campanasque sonant in campanilibus altis.
(I, 124-133)
In the first two lines the action is completed and made concrete, from
the act of hammering to that of construction; in the last two there is
an increasing intensity of movement from a mere jumping to the ring-
ing of bells. The same kind of crescendo can be seen in Rabelais: "Je
mors, je rue, je frappe, je attrape, je tue, je renye" (I, 33).19
Given the diversity of the languages out of which Folengo and Rabe-
lais create, it is absurd to look for more than stylistic analogy. Direct
influence is not only tenuous; it is almost out of the question, unless
we forfeit Rabelais' identity along with his genius. We can note an
affinity of temperament which is partially explained by the fact that
they are contemporaries. Both have the same monastic and Latin back-
ground reflected in their styles, e.g., in the use of the Ciceronian repe-
tition for emphasis. Folengo and Rabelais are the products of their
times; the flexibility of their languages allows them to create varia-
tions of extreme ingenuity. Primarily because of their verbal dexterity,
Is Luzio, pp. 23-24.
19 For a similar use of the stylistic crescendo in Pulci, Folengo's and Rabelais'
ancestor, see Gaetano Mariani, II Alorgante e i cantari trecenteschi (Florence,
1953), pp. 82-102.
363
both keep us under the incantation of their art.

Folengo had on Rabelais, as far as characters an
cerned, is relatively minor, since Rabelais amplified
pletely revitalized his borrowings. The significant r
in the similarities in their burlesque epics, but in t
pulsive need to render their fantasy concrete in
exuberance.
Duke University
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TETEL Rabelais Folengo

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University of Oregon

Rabelais and Folengo

Rabelais and Folengo

T HE SIGNIFICANT influence of Teofilo Folengo (pseudony-

sition "de stanciis diabolorum quinque libros."3 But

similar episode. Pantagruel and his group meet

relationship is hardly discernible, but the distingu

he anticipated Sainean, who saw between Foleng

position-adapting sublime means to a vulgar end

"robes talares [which comle down to the heels], v

Mille marangones super amplam ligna piazzam

both keep us under the incantation of their art.

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