Gargantua and Pantagruel eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,126 pages of information about Gargantua and Pantagruel.

Gargantua and Pantagruel eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,126 pages of information about Gargantua and Pantagruel.

  The holy sacred Word,
  May it always afford
    T’ us all in common,
    Both man and woman,
  A spiritual shield and sword,
  The holy sacred Word.

Here enter you all ladies of high birth,
Delicious, stately, charming, full of mirth,
Ingenious, lovely, miniard, proper, fair,
Magnetic, graceful, splendid, pleasant, rare,
Obliging, sprightly, virtuous, young, solacious,
Kind, neat, quick, feat, bright, compt, ripe, choice, dear, precious. 
Alluring, courtly, comely, fine, complete,
Wise, personable, ravishing, and sweet,
Come joys enjoy.  The Lord celestial
Hath given enough wherewith to please us all.

  Gold give us, God forgive us,
  And from all woes relieve us;
    That we the treasure
    May reap of pleasure,
  And shun whate’er is grievous,
  Gold give us, God forgive us.

Chapter 1.LV.

What manner of dwelling the Thelemites had.

In the middle of the lower court there was a stately fountain of fair alabaster.  Upon the top thereof stood the three Graces, with their cornucopias, or horns of abundance, and did jet out the water at their breasts, mouth, ears, eyes, and other open passages of the body.  The inside of the buildings in this lower court stood upon great pillars of chalcedony stone and porphyry marble made archways after a goodly antique fashion.  Within those were spacious galleries, long and large, adorned with curious pictures, the horns of bucks and unicorns:  with rhinoceroses, water-horses called hippopotames, the teeth and tusks of elephants, and other things well worth the beholding.  The lodging of the ladies, for so we may call those gallant women, took up all from the tower Arctic unto the gate Mesembrine.  The men possessed the rest.  Before the said lodging of the ladies, that they might have their recreation, between the two first towers, on the outside, were placed the tiltyard, the barriers or lists for tournaments, the hippodrome or riding-court, the theatre or public playhouse, and natatory or place to swim in, with most admirable baths in three stages, situated above one another, well furnished with all necessary accommodation, and store of myrtle-water.  By the river-side was the fair garden of pleasure, and in the midst of that the glorious labyrinth.  Between the two other towers were the courts for the tennis and the balloon.  Towards the tower Criere stood the orchard full of all fruit-trees, set and ranged in a quincuncial order.  At the end of that was the great park, abounding with all sort of venison.  Betwixt the third couple of towers were the butts and marks for shooting with a snapwork gun, an ordinary bow for common archery, or with a crossbow.  The office-houses were without the tower Hesperia, of one storey high.  The stables were beyond the offices, and before them stood the falconry, managed by ostrich-keepers and falconers

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Gargantua and Pantagruel from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.