partium: just so the heart with excessive joy
is inwardly dilated, and suffereth a manifest resolution
of the vital spirits, which may go so far on that
it may thereby be deprived of its nourishment, and
by consequence of life itself, by this perichary or
extremity of gladness, as Galen saith, lib. 12, method,
lib. 5, de locis affectis, and lib. 2, de symptomatum
causis. And as it hath come to pass in former
times, witness Marcus Tullius, lib. 1, Quaest.
Tuscul., Verrius, Aristotle, Titus Livius, in his
relation of the battle of Cannae, Plinius, lib. 7,
cap.
32 and 34, A. Gellius, lib. 3, c. 15, and many
other writers,—to Diagoras the Rhodian,
Chilon, Sophocles, Dionysius the tyrant of Sicily,
Philippides, Philemon, Polycrates, Philistion, M.
Juventi, and others who died with joy. And as
Avicen speaketh, in 2 canon et lib. de virib. cordis,
of the saffron, that it doth so rejoice the heart
that, if you take of it excessively, it will by a
superfluous resolution and dilation deprive it altogether
of life. Here peruse Alex. Aphrodiseus,
lib. 1, Probl., cap. 19, and that for a cause.
But what? It seems I am entered further into
this point than I intended at the first. Here,
therefore, will I strike sail, referring the rest
to that book of mine which handleth this matter to
the full. Meanwhile, in a word I will tell you,
that blue doth certainly signify heaven and heavenly
things, by the same very tokens and symbols that white
signifieth joy and pleasure.
Chapter 1.XI.
Of the youthful age of Gargantua.
Gargantua, from three years upwards unto five, was
brought up and instructed in all convenient discipline
by the commandment of his father; and spent that time
like the other little children of the country, that
is, in drinking, eating, and sleeping: in eating,
sleeping, and drinking: and in sleeping, drinking,
and eating. Still he wallowed and rolled up and
down himself in the mire and dirt—he blurred
and sullied his nose with filth—he blotted
and smutched his face with any kind of scurvy stuff—he
trod down his shoes in the heel—at the flies
he did oftentimes yawn, and ran very heartily after
the butterflies, the empire whereof belonged to his
father. He pissed in his shoes, shit in his shirt,
and wiped his nose on his sleeve—he did
let his snot and snivel fall in his pottage, and dabbled,
paddled, and slobbered everywhere—he would
drink in his slipper, and ordinarily rub his belly
against a pannier. He sharpened his teeth with
a top, washed his hands with his broth, and combed
his head with a bowl. He would sit down betwixt
two stools, and his arse to the ground —would
cover himself with a wet sack, and drink in eating
of his soup. He did eat his cake sometimes without
bread, would bite in laughing, and laugh in biting.
Oftentimes did he spit in the basin, and fart for
fatness, piss against the sun, and hide himself in
the water for fear of rain. He would strike
