in 
and Art. 
Literature 
335 
book arifes out of Pantagreul's deiire to marry, and its various amufing 
epifodes defcribe the different expedients which, at the fuggeition of 
Panurge, he adopts to arrive at a folution of the queiiion whether his 
marriage would be fortunate or not. 
In publithing his fourth book, Rabelais complains that his writings 
had raifed him enemies, and that he was accufed of having at lealt written 
herefy. In fact, he had bitterly provoked both the monks and the univerfity 
and parliament; and, as the increaling reaction of Romanifm in France gave 
more power of perfecution to the two latter, he was not writing without 
fome degree of danger, yet the fatire of each fucceilive book became 
bolder and more direct. The fifth, which was left unfinifhed at his death, 
and which was publifhed polthumouily, was the molt fevere of them all. 
The character of Gargantua, indeed, was almoiil forgotten in that of Pan- 
tagruel, and Pantagruelifm became an accepted name for the fort of gay, 
recklefs fatire of which he was looked upon as the model. He defcribed 
it himfelf as a certaine gaiete  corifite rm niepris des clzqfizs jbrtuiies, 
in me, neither Romanifm nor Protettantifm, but {imply a jovial kind of 
Epicurianifm. All the gay wits of the time afpired to be Plantagruelilis, 
and the remainder of the fixteenth century abounded in wretched imita- 
tions of the ityle of Rabelais,_ which are now configned as mere rarities to 
the fhelves of the bibliophiliit. 
Among the dangers which began to threaten them in France in the 
earlier part of the {ixteenth century, liberal opinions found an afylum at 
the court of a princefs who was equally diftinguiihed by her beauty, by 
her talents and noble fentirnents, and by her accomplifhments. Mar- 
guerite d'Angouleme, queen of Navarre, was the only filter of Francois I., 
who was her junior by two years, and was affectionately attached to her. 
She was born on the nth of April, 1492. She had married, iirti, that 
unfortunate duke d'Aleneon, whofe mifconduct at Pavia was the caufe oi 
the difattrous defeat of the French, and the captivity of their king. The 
duke died, it was {aid of grief at his misfortune, in 1525 ; and two years 
afterwards, on the 24th of January, 1527, the married Henri d'Albret, 
king of Navarre. Their daughter, Jeanne d'Albret, carried this petty 
royalty to the houfe of Bourbon, and was the mother of Henri IV. 
Marguerite